Influenza virus recombinant proteins

ABSTRACT

The present invention includes influenza Hemagglutinin protein fragments that fold properly when expressed in bacteria.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED PATENT APPLICATIONS

The present application is a U.S. National Phase of PCT/US2010/055166, filed Nov. 2, 2010, which claims benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Nos. 61/257,785, filed Nov. 3, 2009, and, 61/325,216 filed Apr. 16, 2010, each of which are incorporated by reference for all purposes.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Reference to a “Sequence Listing,” a Table, or a Computer Program Listing Appendix Submitted as an ASCII Text File

The Sequence Listing written in file-588-2.TXT, created on Dec. 4, 2014, 122,880 bytes, machine format IBM-PC, MS-Windows operating system, is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety for all purposes.

Influenza is a contagious acute respiratory disease caused by infection of the upper respiratory and gastrointestinal tract by influenza virus. The viral genome is made up of several negative sense single stranded RNA molecules. Several proteins are encoded by the viral genome. Neuraminidase (NA) is a viral surface glycoprotein that cleaves terminal sialic acid residues from carbohydrate moieties on the surfaces of infected cells, promoting the release of progeny viruses. Hemagglutinin (HA) is one of the major viral surface glycoproteins and involved in the binding of the virus to sialic acids on the surface of susceptible cells (Uiprasertkul M, et al. Emerg. Infect. Dis. 11, 1036-1041 (2005)). Influenza HA is a trimer on virus particles. Influenza HA is synthesized as HA0 by virus post-infection in cells that is cleaved by cellular proteases at the basic cleavage site into HA1 and HA2 mature forms, which is required for proper function of this surface protein and for viral life cycle. The M2 protein is an ion channel protein. The HA, NA, and M2 protein are present in the viral envelope which is derived from the host cell plasma membrane. A ribonucleoprotein complex comprises an RNA segment associated with nucleoprotein (NP) and three polymerases, PA, PB1, and PB2. The M1 protein is associated with both ribonucleoprotien and the envelope.

Annual epidemics of influenza occur when the antigenic properties of the viral surface protein hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA) are altered. The mechanism of altered antigenicity is twofold: antigenic shift, caused by genetic rearrangement between human and animal viruses after double infection of host cells, which can cause a pandemic; and antigenic drift, caused by small changes in the HA and NA proteins on the virus surface, which can cause influenza epidemics.

Recently a new H1N1 strain, designated 2009 A(H1N1) or simply “A(H1N1)” was identified (commonly referred to in the lay press as “swine flu”) and has become a pandemic. See, e.g., Garten et al. Science, 325:197-201 (2009).

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides for isolated polypeptides, optionally produced in bacteria. In some embodiments, the polypeptide comprises:

-   a. at least a portion an influenza Hemagglutinin-1 (HA-1) domain,     said portion comprising an influenza amino acid sequence     corresponding to positions 1-259 of SEQ ID NOS:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or     7; and -   b. lacks:     -   an Hemagglutinin-2 (HA-2) domain; and/or     -   an Hemagglutinin transmembrane domain.

In some embodiments, the polypeptide comprises a sequence of SEQ ID NO:1, 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7 or a sequence of FIG. 1 that corresponds to positions 1-259 of SEQ ID NO:2.

In some embodiments, the polypeptide binds to conformation sensitive influenza neutralizing antibodies. In some embodiments, the amino acid sequence is substantially identical (e.g., at least 70%, 80%, 90%, 95%, 98%, etc. identical) to positions 1-259 or 28-320 of SEQ ID NOS: 1, 2; 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7. In some embodiments, the portion comprises positions 1-259 or 28-320 of SEQ ID NOS: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7. In some embodiments, the portion consists of positions 1-259 or 28-320 of SEQ ID NOS: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7.

In some embodiments, the portion consists of an influenza amino acid sequence corresponding to positions 1-259 or 28-320 of SEQ ID NOS: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7.

In some embodiments, the portion comprises an influenza amino acid sequence corresponding to positions 1-320 of SEQ ID NOS: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7. In some embodiments, the amino acid sequence comprises a sequence of SEQ ID NO:1, 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7 or a sequence of FIG. 1 that corresponds to positions 1-320 of SEQ ID NO:2. In some embodiments, the amino acid sequence is substantially identical (e.g., at least 70%, 80%, 90%, 95%, 98%, etc. identical) to positions 1-320 of SEQ ID NOS:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7. In some embodiments, the portion comprises positions 1-320 of SEQ ID NOS:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7. In some embodiments, the portion consists of positions 1-320 of SEQ ID NOS:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7.

In some embodiments, the portion consists of an influenza amino acid sequence corresponding to positions 1-320 of SEQ ID NOS:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7.

In some embodiments, the portion comprises an influenza amino acid sequence corresponding to positions 1-330 of SEQ ID NOS:1, 3, 5, or 6. In some embodiments, the amino acid sequence is substantially identical (e.g., at least 70%, 80%, 90%, 95%, 98%, etc. identical) to positions 1-330 of SEQ ID NOS:1, 3, 5, or 6. In some embodiments, the portion comprises positions 1-330 of SEQ ID NOS:1, 3, 5, or 6. In some embodiments, the portion consists of positions 1-330 of SEQ ID NOS:1, 3, 5, or 6.

In some embodiments, the portion consists of an influenza amino acid sequence corresponding to positions 1-330 of SEQ ID NOS:1, 3, 5, or 6.

The present invention also provides for isolated polypeptides, optionally bacterially expressed, that bind to conformation-sensitive influenza-neutralizing antibodies, bind to red blood cells in hemagluttination assays, and/or bind to influenza receptors (including, e.g., sialic acid). In some embodiments, the polypeptide comprises:

-   a. at least a portion (including but not limited to, comprising a     portion corresponding to positions 28-320, 1-259, 1-320 of SEQ ID     NOS:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7) of an influenza Hemagglutinin-1 (HA-1)     domain; and -   b. lacks:     -   an Hemagglutinin-2 (HA-2) domain; and/or     -   an Hemagglutinin transmembrane domain.

In some embodiments, the influenza is selected from the group consisting of H5N1, H3N2, H1N1, H7N7 and H9N2. In some embodiments, the influenza is any of the influenza strains.

The present invention also provides physiological composition comprising any of the polypeptides described above or elsewhere herein, further comprising a physiological excipient.

In some embodiments, the composition is a vaccine. In some embodiments, the composition further comprises an adjuvant.

The present invention also provides methods of inducing an immune response against an influenza Hemagglutinin in an animal. In some embodiments, the method comprises administering an amount of the composition as described above or elsewhere herein to the animal sufficient to induce said immune response. In some embodiments, the animal is a human.

The present invention also provides methods of producing any of the polypeptides described above or elsewhere herein. In some embodiments, the method comprises expressing the polypeptide from polynucleotide (e.g., an RNA or DNA) encoding the polypeptide; and purifying the expressed polypeptide. In some embodiments, the expressing step is performed in vitro. In some embodiments, the expressing step is performed in a eukaryotic cell. In some embodiments, the expressing step is performed in a bacterium cell. In some embodiments, the bacterium is E. coli. The polypeptide can be cloned, expressed and purified in other prokaryotic or eukaryotic host cells including fungal, mammalian, insect cells etc. In some embodiments, the method further comprises formulating a vaccine comprising the purified polypeptide.

The present invention also provides for methods of detecting the presence or absence of an Hemagglutinin-specific antibody in a sample. In some embodiments, the method comprises performing an assay to determine binding of the antibody with any of the polypeptides described above or elsewhere herein; and detecting binding of the polypeptide to the antibody.

In some embodiments, the assay is a single radial immunodiffusion (SRID) assay.

The present invention also provides isolated nucleic acids encoding any of the polypeptides described above or elsewhere herein. In some embodiments, the codons of the nucleic acid are optimized for bacterial or eukaryotic expression.

The present invention also provides for expression cassettes comprising a promoter operably linked to a nucleic acid as described above or elsewhere herein. In some embodiments, the promoter is a bacterial or eukaryotic promoter.

Additional embodiments of the invention will be clear from the rest of this document.

DEFINITIONS

In the expression of recombinant genes, such as expression cassette or vector-expressed sequences or transgenes, one of skill will recognize that the coding polynucleotide sequence need not be identical to those described herein and may be “substantially identical” to a sequence, for example, to a particular sequence of an HA-1 domain polypeptide or portion thereof. As explained below, these variants are specifically covered by the term Hemagglutinin-1 (HA-1) domain. For example, in addition to the specific HA-1 sequences of A(H1N1) set forth herein, variants of such sequences such as those that occur in naturally-occurring influenza viruses are encompassed by the term “HA-1”. These variations include partially or completely deglycosylated forms of the polypeptides, and the nucleic acids which encode these variations.

In the case where a polynucleotide sequence is transcribed and translated to produce a functional polypeptide, one of skill will recognize that because of codon degeneracy, a number of polynucleotide sequences can encode the same polypeptide. These variants are specifically covered by the above term. In addition, nucleic acids of the invention specifically include those sequences encoding polypeptides substantially identical (determined as described below) with the polypeptide sequences set forth herein.

A “fusion protein” refers to a composition comprising at least one polypeptide or peptide domain which is associated with a second amino acid sequence or domain. The second domain can be a polypeptide, peptide, polysaccharide, or the like. The “fusion” can be an association generated by a peptide bond, a chemical linking, a charge interaction (e.g., electrostatic attractions, such as salt bridges, H-bonding, etc.) or the like. If the polypeptides are recombinant, the “fusion protein” can be translated from a common message. Alternatively, the compositions of the domains can be linked by any chemical or electrostatic means following translation.

A “recombinant nucleic acid” comprises, or is encoded by, one or more nucleic acids that are derived from a nucleic acid which was artificially constructed. For example, the nucleic acid can comprise, or be encoded by, a cloned nucleic acid formed by joining heterologous nucleic acids as taught, e.g., in Berger and Kimmel, Guide to Molecular Cloning Techniques, Methods in Enzymology volume 152 Academic Press, Inc., San Diego, Calif. (Berger) and in Sambrook et al. (1989) Molecular Cloning—A Laboratory Manual (2nd ed.) Vol. 1-3 (Sambrook). Alternatively, the nucleic acid can be synthesized chemically. The term “recombinant” when used with reference to a cell indicates that the cell replicates or expresses a nucleic acid, or expresses a peptide or protein encoded by a nucleic acid whose origin is exogenous to the cell. Recombinant cells can express genes that are not found within the native (non-recombinant) form of the cell. Recombinant cells can also express genes found in the native form of the cell wherein the genes are re-introduced into the cell or a progenitor of the cell by artificial means.

An “expression cassette” refers to a nucleic acid construct, which when introduced into a host cell (e.g., a plant, mammalian, insect or bacterial cell), results in transcription and/or translation of a RNA or polypeptide (e.g., an HA-1 domain-containing polypeptide as described herein, respectively.

Two nucleic acid sequences or polypeptides are said to be “identical” if the sequence of nucleotides or amino acid residues, respectively, in the two sequences is the same when aligned for maximum correspondence as described below. The term “complementary to” is used herein to mean that the sequence is complementary to all or a portion of a reference polynucleotide sequence.

Examples of algorithms that are suitable for determining percent sequence identity and sequence similarity are the BLAST and BLAST 2.0 algorithms, which are described in Altschul et al., Nuc. Acids Res. 25:3389-3402 (1977), and Altschul et al., J. Mol. Biol. 215:403-410 (1990), respectively. Software for performing BLAST analyses is publicly available on the Web through the National Center for Biotechnology Information (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/). This algorithm involves first identifying high scoring sequence pairs (HSPs) by identifying short words of length W in the query sequence, which either match or satisfy some positive-valued threshold score T when aligned with a word of the same length in a database sequence. T is referred to as the neighborhood word score threshold (Altschul et al., supra). These initial neighborhood word hits act as seeds for initiating searches to find longer HSPs containing them. The word hits are extended in both directions along each sequence for as far as the cumulative alignment score can be increased. Cumulative scores are calculated using, for nucleotide sequences, the parameters M (reward score for a pair of matching residues; always >0) and N (penalty score for mismatching residues; always <0). For amino acid sequences, a scoring matrix is used to calculate the cumulative score. Extension of the word hits in each direction are halted when: the cumulative alignment score falls off by the quantity X from its maximum achieved value; the cumulative score goes to zero or below, due to the accumulation of one or more negative-scoring residue alignments; or the end of either sequence is reached. The BLAST algorithm parameters W, T, and X determine the sensitivity and speed of the alignment. The BLASTN program (for nucleotide sequences) uses as defaults a wordlength (W) of 11, an expectation (E) or 10, M=5, N=−4 and a comparison of both strands. For amino acid sequences, the BLASTP program uses as defaults a wordlength of 3, and expectation (E) of 10, and the BLOSUM62 scoring matrix (see Henikoff and Henikoff, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 89:10915, (1989)) alignments (B) of 50, expectation (E) of 10, M=5, N=−4, and a comparison of both strands.

The BLAST algorithm also performs a statistical analysis of the similarity between two sequences (see, e.g., Karlin and Altschul, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 90:5873-5787, (1993)). One measure of similarity provided by the BLAST algorithm is the smallest sum probability (P(N)), which provides an indication of the probability by which a match between two nucleotide or amino acid sequences would occur by chance. For example, a nucleic acid is considered similar to a reference sequence if the smallest sum probability in a comparison of the test nucleic acid to the reference nucleic acid is less than about 0.2, more preferably less than about 0.01, and most preferably less than about 0.001.

“Percentage of sequence identity” is determined by comparing two optimally aligned sequences over a comparison window, wherein the portion of the polynucleotide sequence in the comparison window may comprise additions or deletions (i.e., gaps) as compared to the reference sequence (which does not comprise additions or deletions) for optimal alignment of the two sequences. The percentage is calculated by determining the number of positions at which the identical nucleic acid base or amino acid residue occurs in both sequences to yield the number of matched positions, dividing the number of matched positions by the total number of positions in the window of comparison and multiplying the result by 100 to yield the percentage of sequence identity.

The term “substantial identity” of polynucleotide sequences means that a polynucleotide comprises a sequence that has at least 55% sequence identity to a designated reference sequence. Alternatively, percent identity can be any integer from 55% to 100%, for example, at least: 55%, 60%, 65%, 70%, 75%, 80%, 85%, 90%, 95%, or 99% compared to a reference sequence using the programs described herein; preferably BLAST using standard parameters, as described below. One of skill will recognize that the percent identity values above can be appropriately adjusted to determine corresponding identity of proteins encoded by two nucleotide sequences by taking into account codon degeneracy, amino acid similarity, reading frame positioning and the like. Substantial identity of amino acid sequences for these purposes normally means sequence identity of at least 50%. Percent identity of polypeptides can be any integer from 50% to 100%, for example, at least 50%, 55%, 60%, 65%, 70%, 75%, 80%, 85%, 90%, 95%, or 99%. The present invention provides for polypeptides comprising sequences substantially identical to those set forth herein.

In some embodiments, polypeptides that are “substantially similar” share sequences as noted above except that residue positions that are not identical may differ by conservative amino acid changes. Conservative amino acid substitutions refer to the interchangeability of residues having similar side chains. For example, a group of amino acids having aliphatic side chains is glycine, alanine, valine, leucine, and isoleucine; a group of amino acids having aliphatic-hydroxyl side chains is serine and threonine; a group of amino acids having amide-containing side chains is asparagine and glutamine; a group of amino acids having aromatic side chains is phenylalanine, tyrosine, and tryptophan; a group of amino acids having basic side chains is lysine, arginine, and histidine; and a group of amino acids having sulfur-containing side chains is cysteine and methionine. Exemplary conservative amino acids substitution groups are: valine-leucine-isoleucine, phenylalanine-tyrosine, lysine-arginine, alanine-valine, aspartic acid-glutamic acid, and asparagine-glutamine.

As used herein, “isolated,” when referring to a molecule or composition means that the molecule or composition is separated from at least one other compound, such as a protein, other nucleic acids (e.g., DNA, RNAs, etc.), or other contaminants with which it is associated in vivo or in its naturally occurring state.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 provides an alignment of a selection of influenza Hemagglutinin HA-1-480 domain amino acid sequences (SEQ ID NOS:8-30).

FIG. 2 Biochemical and functional characterization of bacterially expressed and purified H1N1 HA proteins. (A) Purified E. coli derived HA proteins were analyzed by SDS-PAGE. DNA encoding HA1 (1-330) and HA (1-480) from HA gene segment of A/California/07/2009 (H1N1) generated from egg-grown virus were used for cloning in a T7 promoter based expression vector (pSK) where the desired polypeptide can be expressed as fusion protein with His₆ tag at the C-terminus. The proteins were expressed, denatured and refolded under controlled redox conditions and purified using His-Trap fast flow chromatography to >90% purity. The purified proteins run at their corresponding molecular weight in reducing SDS-PAGE. (B-C) CD melt spectroscopy shows that both H1N1 HA1 (1-330) (B) and H1N1 HA (1-480) (C) are properly folded. Both H1N1 HA proteins, at a concentration of 0.5 mg/ml in 20 mM PBS, pH 7.2, were subjected to heating at 0.5° C./min increments. The protein unfolding kinetics was measured at 222 nm using a J-715 Circular Dichroism system (JASCO corp., Easton, Md.). (D-E) Superdex S-200 gel filtration chromatography of purified H1N1 HA proteins from E. coli. The panels present superimposed elution profiles of purified HA proteins (red line) overlaid with calibration standards (grey line). (D) The H1N1 HA (1-330) protein purified from bacterial cells existed as approximately 20% high-molecular-mass oligomer (>600 kDa), 45% trimer (˜110 kDa) and 35% monomer (34 kDa) (red line). (E) H1N1 HA (1-480) is present only as a monomer (50 kDa). (F) Agglutination of human RBCs by properly folded bacterial H1N1 HA (1-330) protein. Serial dilutions of purified HA proteins or virus were mixed with washed RBC and incubated to analyze the receptor binding and cross-linking of human RBC. Virus H1N1×PR8 A/California/07/2009 (X-179A) was used as a control. Strong hemagglutination was observed for H1N1 HA (1-330) but not with H1N1 HA (1-480).

FIG. 3. Development of neutralizing and anti-HA binding antibodies following wt H1N1 (A/California/7/2009) infection in ferrets. (A) Microneutralization of H1N1 A/California/2009 virus with post-H1N1-infected ferret samples. End-point titers (mean of three replicates) using post-infection sera from multiple ferrets at each time point in a microneutralization assay performed with A/California/07/2009 (X-179A). For day 21, sera of ten animals were pooled. Each dot in other time-points represents an individual H1N1 infected ferret. (B-D) Antibody kinetics following H1N1 challenge in ferrets. Steady-state equilibrium analysis of post-H1N1 infected ferret sera to mammalian H1N1 HA0 (Immune Technologies, NY) and properly folded bacterially expressed H1N1 HA1 (1-330) or H1N1 HA (1-480) fragment were measured using SPR. Ten-fold diluted individual post-infection sera from each time point, were injected simultaneously onto recombinant mammalian H1N1 HA0 in (B) and properly folded bacterially expressed H1N1 HA1 (1-330) in (C) or H1N1 HA (1-480) in (D), immobilized on a sensor chip through the free amine group, and onto a blank flow cell, free of peptide. Binding was recorded using ProteOn system surface plasmon resonance biosensor instrument (BioRad Labs, Hercules, Calif.).

FIG. 4 illustrates that bacterial HA generates vaccine potency reagent (SRID).

FIG. 5 illustrates that properly folded bacterial H1N1 HA proteins adsorb neutralizing activity in post-H1N1 vaccination and post-H1N1 infection sera.

FIG. 6 illustrates immunization of rabbits with bacterially expressed H1N1 (1-330) and HA (1-480) elicit potent neutralizing antibodies

FIG. 7. Hemagglutination-inhibition (HAI) titers in ferrets. HAI antibody in ferrets (n=4 per group) vaccinated with either 30 ug or 7.5 ug of influenza H1N1 rHA or mock vaccinated. Blood was collected at day 35 (post-dose 2). HAI responses were assessed against A/California/07/2009. Bars indicate geometric mean titer (GMT). The titer from each individual ferret is indicated by symbol. *p≦0.05 compared to mock.

FIG. 8. Viral loads and morbidity following A/California/07/2009 challenge in ferrets. (A) Viral replication of influenza A/California/07/2009 in nasal washes following intranasal challenge. Average pfu of virus from the nasal washes of each group (4 ferrets per group) on days 1, 3, and 5 post challenges. (B) Change in body temperature and (C) percent body weight.

FIG. 9. Biochemical and functional characterization of bacterially expressed and purified H5N1 HA proteins. (A) Panel of A/Vietnam/1203/2004 (H5N1) HA1 domain (aa 1-330) and N- and C-termini deletions were expressed in E. coli as fusion proteins with His6 tag at the C-termini. The purified proteins ran as single bands at the expected molecular weights in reducing SDS-PAGE. (B) Steady-state binding equilibrium analysis of human H5N1 neutralizing MAb FLA5.10 (10 μg/ml) to purified bacterially expressed H5N1 Ha 1 proteins immobilized on a sensor chip through the free amine group, and onto a blank flow cell, free of peptide. H5N1 vaccine from the reassorted virus rgH5N1×PR8 (2:6) A/Vietnam/1203/2004 (clade 1) from Sanofi Pasteur was also analyzed. Binding was recorded using ProteOn system surface plasmon resonance biosensor instrument (BioRad Labs, Hercules, Calif.). Similar results were obtained with two additional broadly neutralizing human Mabs FLD21.140 & FLA3.14 (C) Agglutination of human RBC by properly folded bacterial H5N1 HA1 (1-330) protein and its deletion derivatives along with H5N1 vaccine. Serial dilutions of purified HA1 proteins were mixed with washed RBC and hemagglutination was read after 30 min at RT. Reassorted virus rgH5N1×PR8 (2:6) A/Vietnam/1203/2004 (clade 1.0) was used as a positive control. H5N1 vaccine was used at a starting concentration of 1 μg/ml. (D) H5N1-Neutralizing MAb FLA 5.10 specifically blocks agglutination of human RBC by recombinant HA1 (1-330), and HA1 (1-320) proteins, and of rgH5N1×PR8 virus. Two-fold serial dilutions of MAb FLA5.10 were pre-incubated with purified HA1 proteins or virus before mixing with washed RBC.

FIG. 10. Characterization of purified H5N1 HA proteins from E. coli and H5N1 vaccine by gel filtration chromatography, reducing and native gel electrophoresis and analytical centrifugation. Superdex S-200 gel filtration chromatography of bacterial H5N1 HA proteins and H5N1 vaccine. Purified H5N1 HA1 proteins with intact N-terminus (1-320) (A), HA1 with N-termini deletions (5-320) (B) and (28-320) (C), HA1 N-terminal peptide (1-104) (D), and H5N1 vaccine from the reassorted virus rgH5N1×PR8 (2:6) A/Vietnam/1203/2004 (clade 1) from Sanofi Pasteur (E) were subjected to gel filtration. The panels present superimposed elution profiles of purified HA proteins (red line) overlaid with calibration standards (grey line). The elution volumes of protein species are shown in parenthesis. SDS-PAGE analysis of bacterially purified H5N1 HA1 protein forms, and H5N1 vaccine in SDS-reducing (F), and Native gel (G). Different forms of bacterial produced H5N1 HA1-320 were purified from Superdex S200 XK 26/60 column (GE-Healthcare) and subjected to gel analysis along with the H5N1 vaccine from the reassorted virus rgH5N1×PR8 (2:6) A/Vietnam/1203/2004.

FIG. 11 (A-B) H5-Viet-HA 1-320 induces oligomer specific antibodies. Five-fold diluted post-vaccination sera from Rabbit K1 (H5N1 HA 1-320), or Rabbit K3 (HA 28-320) were added to 0.5 mg of purified HA(1-320)-His₆ or to HA(28-320)-His₆ proteins (or PBS), and incubated for 1 hr at RT. Nickel-nitrilotriacetic acid (Ni-NTA) magnetic beads (200 μl) (Qiagen) were added for 20 min at RT on end-to-end shaker, to capture the His-tagged proteins and the antibodies bound to them, followed by magnetic separation. Supernatants containing the unbound antibodies were collected. The pre- and post-adsorbed sera were subjected to SPR analysis on purified oligomeric H5N1 HA (1-320) (A), or monomeric H5N1 HA (1-320) protein (B), immobilized on a sensor chip through the free amine group, and onto a blank flow cell, free of peptide. Binding was recorded using ProteOn system surface plasmon resonance biosensor instrument (BioRad Labs, Hercules, Calif.).

FIG. 12. Functional activities of H5N1 HA1 monomers and oligomers in receptor binding and hemagglutination. (A-B) Binding kinetics of purified H5N1 HA1 proteins and its mutants in a SPR based receptor binding assay. Steady-state equilibrium analysis of different H5N1-HA1 proteins to fetuin and its asialylated counterpart (Asialo-fetuin) was analyzed at 25° C. using a ProteOn surface plasmon resonance biosensor (BioRad Labs). Samples of purified bacterial H5N1-HA1 proteins and H5N1 vaccine (10 μg/ml) were injected simultaneously over a mock surface to which no protein was bound, followed by Fetuin (A) or Asialofetuin (B) immobilized on a sensor chip through the free amine group, and onto a blank flow cell, free of protein. Binding kinetics and data analysis were performed using ProteOn system surface plasmon resonance biosensor instrument (BioRad Labs, Hercules, Calif.). (C) monomers and oligomers of properly folded bacterially expressed H5N1 HA1 (1-320) were purified using a size-exclusion chromatography and subjected to SPR based fetuin binding assay. (D). human RBC hemagglutination with HA1 (1-320) monomeric and oligomeric forms isolated by size-exclusion chromatography.

FIG. 13 illustrates the H5N1-A/Vietnam/1203/2004 HA fragments that were produced in E. coli, and folded in-vitro, and that were tested in multiple binding and functional assays. All the proteins folded properly as studied using Circular Dichroism spectroscopy and binding to a panel of conformation dependent neutralizing monoclonal antibodies. Furthermore, the properly folded HA proteins that have intact N-terminal beta-sheet formed higher order quaternary structures, including trimers and oligomers. Trimeric HA-1 proteins that has complete receptor binding domain (1-320) bind strongly to the cognate receptor, Fetuin in SPR based assay. All receptor binding HA1 proteins also show specific haemagglutination with red blood cells. So the properly folded bacterially expressed proteins can form trimers and show functional activity in terms of receptor binding and haemagglutination without the requirement of post-translational modifications.

FIG. 14. H5N1-A/Vietnam/1203/2004 HA1 (1-320) elicits higher neutralizing titers than monomeric HA1 (28-320) in rabbits. (A) Animals were immunized with 100 μg proteins mixed with TiterMax adjuvant every three weeks. Sera were collected 8 days after each vaccination and analyzed in a microneutralization assay against various H5N1 virus strains. Representative of three experiments.

FIG. 15. Challenge of vaccinated and unvaccinated ferrets with H5N1 influenza viruses. Following two immunizations with bacterial H5N1— Vietnam HA1 (1-320) or HA (28-320), ferrets (five animals per group) were infected intranasally with 1×10⁶ 50% egg infectious doses (EID₅₀) of A/Vietnam/1203/2004 (clade 1) (A and B) or A/Whooperswan/Mongolia/244/2005 (clade 2.2) (C and D). Animals were scored for percent original body weight (A and C) and percent survival (B and D). Viral loads in nasal washes following challenge of vaccinated and unvaccinated ferrets with H5N1 influenza viruses, A/Vietnam/1203/2004 (clade 1) (E and F) or A/Whooperswan/Mongolia/244/2005 (clade 2.2) (G and H) on day 3 (E and G) or day 5 (F and H) post-virus challenge. Data are presented for individual animals. Horizontal lines represent average pfu of virus from the nasal washes of each group (5 ferrets per group).

FIG. 16. HA1 Proteins from different Influenza strains form oligomers. Superdex S-200 gel filtration chromatography of purified HA1 proteins from recent Influenza A strains in E. coli. Purified HA1 proteins with intact N-terminus from pandemic strain, A/Indonesia/5/2005, A/California/07/2009 & H7N7 A/Netherlands/219/03 and two recent human influenza strains, H3N2 A/Victoria/210/2009 & H3N2 A/Wisconsin/15/2009. The panels present superimposed elution profiles of purified HA proteins (bolded line) overlaid with calibration standards (less bold line). The elution volumes of protein species are shown in parenthesis.

FIG. 17. Purified bacterial H5N1-HA1-330 protein from A/Indonesia/5/2005 elicits broadly cross-neutralizing antibodies compared to monomeric HA 28-320 in rabbits. The immunogenicity of bacterially expressed HA1 proteins was evaluated in rabbits following immunization with either HA1 (1-320) or HA1 (28-320). Microneutralization assay was used to evaluate both homologous and heterologous neutralizing capacity of post vaccination rabbit sera following each immunization (Table 2). After two immunizations, the monomeric HA1 (28-320) elicited modest titer of homologous (A/Indonesia/5/2005) neutralizing antibodies (1:160). The MN titer increased to 1:640 after the 3^(rd) dose. No cross neutralization of A/Vietnam/1203/2004 (clade 1) was observed (top panel). In contrast, rabbits immunized with HA1 (1-320) (containing 60% oligomers), showed a faster kinetics of immune response and broader cross-clade neutralization. A titer of 1:320 against A/Indonesia/5/2005 was measured after the first immunization, and increased dramatically to more than 1:10,240 after the third boost. Importantly, cross-clade neutralizing titers were also very significant including against A/Vietnam/1203/2004 (clade 1) (bottom panel)

FIG. 18. Superdex S-200 gel filtration chromatography of purified HA1 proteins from A/Vietnam/1203/2004 expressed in Mammalian cells. Purified glycosylated HA1 protein with intact N-terminus (aa 1-330) from A/Vietnam/1203/2004 expressed in 293 cells using a CMV based expression vector represents higher order quarternary structures (including trimeric and oligomeric forms). The panel present superimposed elution profile of purified HA1 protein (top line at left) overlaid with calibration standards (bottom line at left).

FIG. 19. Mammalian expressed HA1 protein from A/Vietnam/1203/2004 elicit broadly cross-neutralizing antibodies in rabbits. The immunogenicity of mammalian expressed HA1 proteins was evaluated following immunization in rabbits. Microneutralization assay was used to evaluate both homologous and heterologous neutralizing capacity of post vaccination rabbit sera following each immunization. After two immunizations, the HA1 (1-330) (containing 30% oligomers) elicited modest titer of homologous (A/Vietnam/1203/2004) neutralizing antibodies (1:320). The MN titer increased to 1:640 after the 3^(rd) dose. Importantly, significant cross-clade neutralizing titers against A/Turkey (clade 2.2) and A/Anhui (clade 2.3.4), and A/Indonesia (clade 2.1) was observed.

FIG. 20. SRID analysis of H5N1 potency reference antigen using rabbit anti-HA1 antiserum prepared by immunizing rabbits with bacterially expressed HA1 of either A/Vietnam/1203/2004 (A) or A/Indonesia/5/05 (B). Dilutions of A/Vietnam/1203/04 (A) or A/Indonesia/5/05 (B) reference antigens were analyzed by SRID using the homologous reference antiserum. Precipitin rings were measured in two directions to the nearest 0.1 mm for determination of diameter.

FIG. 21. N-terminal amino acids Ile-Cys-Ile are required for HA1 oligomerization. Alignment of the N-terminal eight amino acids of the hemagglutinin (HA) protein from representative strains of Influenza A subtypes SEQ ID NOS:31, 31, 32, 33, 33, 33, 32, 33, 31, 34, 34-44, 37 and 45, respectively). Amino acid number +1 corresponds to mature HA1 (1-320) protein of H5N1 A/Vietnam/1203/2004 strain sequence described in this study (SEQ ID NO:2). Residues 2-7 constitute the N-terminal β-sheet. This domain can be mutagenized, substituted or domain swapped to generate HA proteins with higher oligomers with better functional activity including receptor binding, hemagglutination and more potent influenza vaccines. Alignment of the N-terminal amino acids of the HA protein from representative strains of 16 different influenza A hemagglutinin subtypes identified amino acids I₃C₄I₅G₆ (SEQ ID NO:46) as highly conserved. Since deletion of only four residues in the N-terminus of HA1 (HA 5-320) was sufficient to prevent RBC agglutination, we constructed two mutants of HA1 (I₃C₄I₅>A₃A₄A₅) and (I₃C₄I₅>G₃A₄G₅). These mutations did not affect protein folding as determined by binding to huMAb FLA5.10. However, both mutated proteins contained only monomers and did not agglutinate RBC (FIG. 13).

FIG. 22. HA1 Proteins from different Influenza strains form properly folded functional oligomers and cause hemagglutination. Agglutination of human RBCs by properly folded bacterial HA1 protein (HA 1-320) from different influenza strains including H5N1-A/Indonesia/5/2005, H3N2 A/Victoria/210/2009 & H7N7 A/Netherlands/219/03. Serial dilutions of purified HA1 proteins were mixed with washed RBC and hemagglutination was read after 30 min at RT.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

I. Introduction

The present invention is based in part on the discovery that bacterial expression of the influenza Hemagglutinin-1 (HA-1) domain, without the Hemagglutinin-2 (HA-2) domain or transmembrane domain, results in a properly folded trimeric functional HA-1 domain. By generating a properly-folded trimeric functional Hemagglutinin domain in bacteria, the inventors have overcome the standard problem in influenza vaccine generation, namely the requirement to generate vaccine active ingredients in chicken eggs.

Bacterial expression of Hemagglutinin comprising both the HA-1 and HA-2 domains (but lacking the transmembrane domain) does not properly fold and thus is a poor candidate as a vaccine or for other uses where neutralizing epitopes need to be present. In contrast, the inventors have found that a truncated Hemagglutinin protein comprising only the HA-1 domain (or certain portions thereof) can be expressed in bacteria and fold properlyunder controlled redox refolding conditions. The inventors have shown proper folding and functionality of this HA-1 domain protein in:

Biophysical studies using CD spectra analysis (CD melt studies of the protein);

Gel filtration (Size exclusion) chromatography (showing trimers and higher order quaternary structures);

Haemagglutination functional assays; and

Receptor (i.e., Fetuin) binding.

Accordingly, the present invention provides for proteins comprising only the HA-1 domain (or certain portions thereof) of Hemagglutinin and lacking the remaining portions of influenza Hemagglutinin. Thus, in some embodiments, the polypeptides of the invention lack amino acids corresponding to positions 330-480 of SEQ ID NO:1. Notably, the inventors have made their discovery using the A(H1N1) A/California/07/2009 virus, known in the lay press as the “swine” flu. They have confirmed these findings in H5N1, H7N7, and H3N2 viruses as well. In view of the common conserves structure (though not primary sequence) of Hemagglutinin in influenza strains, it is believed that the invention is generally applicable to generation of properly folded HA-1 domains from any influenza virus.

II. Polypeptides of the Invention

The present invention provides for polypeptides that comprise an influenza virus HA-1 domain or certain portions thereof (e.g., portions capable of proper folding, following bacterial expression. to interact in a hemagluttination assay, including, e.g., amino acids corresponding to positions 28-320 or 1-320 from H1N1, H3N2, H5N1, or H7N7 HA-1), but lack the HA-2 and transmembrane domains (e.g., lacking amino acids corresponding to positions 331-480 of SEQ ID NO:1 or similar sequence from H5N1, H3N2 or other influenza virus). HA-1 domains can be identified from sequences of any influenza virus strain desired. The inventors have made their initial discovery using the A(H1N1) (aka, “swine flu”) virus and therefore, in some embodiments, the polypeptides of the invention comprise the HA-1 domain or a portion thereof of an A(H1N1) virus but lacks an influenza HA-2 or transmembrane domain. However, the inventors believe that the finding that bacterially-expressed HA-1, in the absence of HA-2, folds properly is generally applicable to all influenza viruses. Indeed, as shown in Example 3, the inventors have shown that similar results occur when HA-from H5N1-Indonesia, H7N7-Netherlands and H3N2 (A/Victoria/210/2009 and A/Wisconsin/15/2009) are used in the absence of the Hemagglutinin-2 (HA-2) domain or transmembrane domain. Thus, although this application provides specific examples to the A(H1N1), H5N1, H7N7 and H3N2 sequences, it would be understood that, in some embodiments, similar manipulations can be made with non-A(H1N1), non-H5N1 influenza viruses, including but not limited to H3N2, H7N7, H2N2 and H9N2, seasonal H1N1 and other influenza.

The native influenza HA protein is expressed as “HA0,” which is cleaved and in budded virus is composed of a trimer of HA1 and HA2 fragments. HA1 has the receptor binding domain and is attached to HA2 domain which has the fusion domain and is anchored into the viral membrane due to the presence of transmembrane domains.

In some embodiments, the HA-1 portion in the polypeptides of the invention comprises, or consists of, influenza Hemagglutinin protein corresponding to positions 1-259 in SEQ ID NOS:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7. The inventors have shown that a bacterially-expressed polypeptide having this fragment (positions 1-259) from Hemagglutinin of H5N1 properly folded as determined by the Circular Dichroism (CD) Melt analysis and also was reactive to conformation dependent neutralizing monoclonal antibodies in an SPR assay. In view of the other data described herein, it is believed that the corresponding fragment 1-259 from A(H1N1) (SEQ ID NO:1) will function similarly. In some embodiments, for example, the invention provides for polypeptides comprising, or consisting of, an amino acid sequence substantially (e.g., at least 70, 80, 90, 95%) identical to positions 1-259 in SEQ ID NOS:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7, but lacking an influenza HA-2 and transmembrane domain. It will be appreciated that those who study influenza virus routinely refer to positions based on the position of the amino acid in a reference strain. The reference sequence is generally SEQ ID NO:2. Thus, in some embodiments, the polypeptide lacks an influenza HA-2 and/or transmembrane domain and comprises a sequence of SEQ ID NO:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7 or a sequence of FIG. 1 that corresponds to positions 1-259 or 1-320 of SEQ ID NO:2. For example, position 320 of SEQ ID NO:1 corresponds to position 321 of SEQ ID NO: 3 or position 313 of SEQ ID NO: 5.

To determine which amino acid of a first protein “corresponds” to the position of an amino acid in a second protein, the amino acid sequences of the two proteins are optimally aligned (e.g., using a BLAST algorithm). This is particularly useful, for example, where two proteins have high homology but where one protein contains one or more insertions or deletions relative to the second protein. In such cases, for example, position 330 of a first protein may align with position 328 in a second protein when the two proteins are optimally aligned. Thus position 328 of the second protein “corresponds” to position 330 of the first protein.

The inventors have also found that HA amino acids corresponding to positions 1-320 or 1-330 of SEQ ID NO:1 or 1-320 of SEQ ID NOS:2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7 form a properly folded protein when expressed in bacteria in the absence of other carboxyl-terminal hemagglutinin sequences. Moreover they bind to the cognate receptor, Fetuin and also causes hemagglutination in hemagglutination assay. Accordingly, in some embodiments, the invention provides for polypeptides comprising an influenza Hemagglutinin sequence corresponding to positions 1-320 or 1-330 of SEQ ID NO:1 or 1-320 of SEQ ID NO:2. In some embodiments, for example, the invention provides for polypeptides comprising (or consisting of) an amino acid sequence substantially (e.g., at least 70, 80, 90, 95%) identical to positions 1-320 or 1-330 of SEQ ID NOS:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7.

A large number of other A(H1N1) and H5N1 HA sequences as well as other influenza Hemagglutinin protein sequences are known. For example, FIG. 1 sets forth an alignment of several influenza Hemagglutinin sequences. The present invention provides for polypeptides comprising (or consisting of) sequences substantially similar to, or identical to, positions 1-320, or 1-330 of any of the sequences set forth in FIG. 1 or in SEQ ID NOS:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7, and further lacking an HA-2 and transmembrane domain of Hemagglutinin.

In some embodiments, the polypeptides of the invention are fusion proteins comprising the HA-1 domain, or a portion thereof capable of proper folding to interact in a hemagluttination assay, fused to a second polypeptide sequence other than HA-2. The second sequence can be linked at the amino or carboxyl terminus, or both, of the HA-1 domain or portion thereof. Heterologous fusion sequences encoding gD tags, c-Myc epitopes, poly-histidine tags, fluorescence proteins (e.g., GFP), or beta-galactosidase protein or glutathione S transferase which can be useful for detection or purification of the fusion protein expressed in or on a cell can be present.

The fusion proteins optionally includes additional features such as a flexible linker between the HA-1 domain and other heterologous amino acid sequences. The linkers can facilitate the independent folding of the HA-1 domain and other heterologous sequences. In some embodiments, flexible linkers are amino acid subsequences that are synthesized as part of a recombinant fusion protein. In one embodiment, the flexible linker is an amino acid subsequence comprising a proline such as Gly₃-Pro-Gly₃(SEQ OID NO:47). In other embodiments, a chemical linker is used to connect synthetically or recombinantly produced subsequences. Such flexible linkers are known to persons of skill in the art. For example, poly(ethylene glycol) linkers are available from Shearwater Polymers, Inc. Huntsville, Ala. Optionally, linkers have amide linkages, sulfhydryl linkages, or heterofunctional linkages.

In addition to flexible linkers, the fusion proteins optionally include polypeptide subsequences from proteins which are unrelated to Hemagglutinin, e.g., a sequence with affinity to a known antibody to facilitate affinity purification, detection, or the like. Such detection- and purification-facilitating domains include, but are not limited to, metal chelating peptides such as polyhistidine tracts and histidine-tryptophan modules that allow purification on immobilized metals, protein A domains that allow purification on immobilized immunoglobulin, and the domain utilized in the FLAGS extension/affinity purification system (Immunex Corp, Seattle Wash.). The inclusion of cleavable linker sequences such as Factor Xa or enterokinase (Invitrogen, San Diego Calif.) between the purification domain and HA-1 domains may be useful to facilitate purification. One such expression vector provides for expression of a fusion protein comprising the sequence encoding the HA-1 domain-containing polypeptide of the invention, or a fusion protein thereof, and nucleic acid sequence encoding six histidine residues (SEQ ID NO:48) followed by thioredoxin and an enterokinase cleavage site (for example, see Williams (1995) Biochemistry 34:1787-1797). The histidine residues facilitate detection and purification while the enterokinase cleavage site provides a means for purifying the desired protein(s) from the remainder of the fusion protein. Technology pertaining to vectors encoding fusion proteins and application of fusion proteins are well described in the patent and scientific literature, see e.g., Kroll (1993) DNA Cell. Biol., 12:441-53).

III. Methods of Making the Polypeptides of the Invention

Polynucleotides encoding influenza polypeptides, recombinant vectors, and host cells containing the recombinant vectors, as well as methods of making such vectors and host cells by recombinant methods are useful to produce the polypeptides as described herein for use in assays or immunogenic compositions.

The polynucleotides of the disclosure may be synthesized or prepared by techniques well known in the art. See, for example, Creighton, Proteins: Structures and Molecular Principles, W. H. Freeman & Co., New York, N.Y. (1983). Nucleotide sequences encoding the influenza polypeptides of the disclosure may be synthesized, and/or cloned, and expressed according to techniques well known to those of ordinary skill in the art. See, for example, Sambrook, et al., Molecular Cloning, A Laboratory Manual, Vols. 1-3, Cold Spring Harbor Press, Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y. (1989). In some embodiments, the polynucleotide sequences will be codon optimized for a particular recipient using standard methodologies. For example, a DNA construct encoding a HA-1-domain-comprising polypeptide can be codon optimized for expression in other hosts, e.g., bacteria, mammalian, fungal, insect cells etc.

The polynucleotides may be produced by standard recombinant methods known in the art, such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR) or reverse transcriptase PCR (Sambrook, et al., 1989, Molecular Cloning, A Laboratory Manual, Vols. 1-3, Cold Spring Harbor Press, Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.), reverse engineering, or the DNA can be synthesized and optimized for expression in bacteria or eukaryotic cells. Primers can be prepared using the polynucleotide sequences that are available in publicly available databases. The polynucleotide constructs may be assembled from polymerase chain reaction cassettes sequentially cloned into a vector containing a selectable marker for propagation in a host. Such markers include but are not limited to dihydrofolate reductase or neomycin resistance for eukaryotic cell culture and tetracycline, ampicillin, or kanamycin resistance genes for culturing in E. coli and other bacteria.

Representative examples of appropriate hosts include, but are not limited to, bacterial cells such as E. coli, Bacillus sp., Streptomyces and Salmonella typherium, fungal cells such as yeast; insect cells such as Drosophilia S2 and Spodoptera Sf9, animal cells such as CHO, COS, and Bowes melanoma cells, and plant cells. Appropriate culture medium and conditions for the above-described host cells are known in the art. As noted herein, one significant benefit of the polypeptides of the present invention is that they fold properly when produced in bacteria.

Introduction of the recombinant vector into the host cell can be effected by injection, by calcium phosphate transfection, DEAE-dextran mediated transfection, cationic lipid-mediated transfection, electroporation, transduction, infection, or other methods. Such methods are described in standard laboratory manuals such as Sambrook, et al., 1989, Molecular Cloning, A Laboratory Manual, Vols. 1-3, Cold Spring Harbor Press, Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y. or Davis et al., 1986, Basic Methods in Molecular Biology. Commercial transfection reagents, such as Lipofectamine (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, Calif.), Effectene (Qiagen, Valencia, Calif.) and FuGENE 6™ (Roche Diagnostics, Indianapolis, Ind.), are also available.

The influenza polypeptide can be recovered and purified from recombinant cell cultures by methods known in the art, including ammonium sulfate or ethanol precipitation, acid extraction, anion or cation exchange chromatography, phosphocellulose chromatography, hydrophobic interaction chromatography, affinity chromatography, hydroxylapatite chromatography, and lectin chromatography.

One of skill will appreciate that many conservative variations of the fusion proteins and nucleic acid that encode the polypeptides of the invention yield essentially identical products. For example, due to the degeneracy of the genetic code, “silent substitutions” (i.e., substitutions of a nucleic acid sequence, which do not result in an alteration in an encoded polypeptide) are an implied feature of every nucleic acid sequence that encodes an amino acid. Nucleic acid sequences can be optimized for expression in a particular host cell (e.g., bacteria, including but not limited to E. coli) used to produce the fusion protein. Similarly, “conservative amino acid substitutions,” in one or a few amino acids in an amino acid sequence are substituted with different amino acids with highly similar properties are also readily identified as being highly similar to a particular amino acid sequence, or to a particular nucleic acid sequence which encodes an amino acid. Such conservatively substituted variations of any particular sequence are a feature of the present invention.

The immunogenic proteins of the invention may be purified from cells (including but not limited to bacterial cells). For a review of standard techniques see, e.g., Methods in Enzymology, “Guide to Protein Purification”, M. Deutscher, ed. Vol. 182 (1990); Scopes, R. K., Protein Purification: Principles and Practice, 2nd ed., Springer Verlag, (1987). For instance, the polypeptides of the invention can be purified using affinity chromatography, SDS-PAGE, and the like. Methods for purifying desired proteins are well known in the art and are not presented in detail here.

Folding of a protein of the invention can be determined according to any method as discussed herein. In some embodiments, the expressed protein is tested in red blood cell hemagluttination assay. Examples of such assays include, for example, those described in Palmer et al. (1975, Advanced laboratory techniques for immunological diagnostic, U.S. Dept. Health. Ed. Welfare. P.H.S. Atlanta, Immunology Ser. No. 6, Procedural guide, part 2, hemagglutination inhibition test, pp. 25-62. Alternative testing of folding can include, e.g., testing the ability of the protein to bind to the influenza receptor (e.g., Fetuin); the ability to generate neutralizing antibodies in a host animal, and/or determination of the ability of the protein to assume appropriate quaternary structure.

IV. Nucleic Acids of the Invention

The present invention provides for nucleic acids that encode the polypeptides of the invention as well as for expression cassettes encoding the polypeptide and vectors comprising the expression cassettes.

The particular vector used to transport the genetic information into the cell is also not particularly critical. Any of the conventional vectors used for expression of recombinant proteins in prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells may be used.

V. Methods of Using the Polypeptides of the Invention

The present disclosure is also directed to uses and methods for immunizing an animal, including a human, other mammal, or bird, with the immunogenic compositions of the invention to inhibit, control, or prevent influenza infection.

In an embodiment, the method comprises administering to an animal an immunogenic effective amount of an immunogenic composition. An immunogenic effective amount is an amount of polynucleotide and/or polypeptide that induces an immune response to the encoded polypeptide when administered to a host, for example an animal. In an embodiment, the animal is a human, pig, horse, birds including domestic birds, or other animals, especially those used in animal models such as mouse, rat, ferret, or non-human primate. In an embodiment, the polynucleotides are incorporated into host cells in vivo and an immunogenic effective amount of the encoded polypeptide or fragment thereof is produced in vivo. The actual amount of the immunogenic composition may vary depending on the animal to be immunized, the route of administration and adjuvants.

Immunogenic dosages can be determined by those of skill in the art. The immune response may be indicated by T and/or B cell responses. Typically, the immune response is detected by the presence of antibodies that specifically bind to a particular polypeptide. The immune response can also be determined by detecting the presence of neutralizing antibodies or hemagglutinin inhibiting activity. Methods of detecting antibodies to polypeptides are known to those of skill in the art and include such assays as ELISA assays, western blot assays, virus and cell binding assays, functional and competition assays. Methods of detecting T cell responses include ELISPOT assays, ICS assays, and in-vitro and in-vivo cytotoxicity assays. The particular region of the polypeptide that is stimulating a T cell or antibody response can be mapped using whole genome phage display libraries as described herein.

In some embodiments, the immunogenic composition administered to an animal includes a polynucleotide and/or polypeptides or immunogenic fragments thereof and one or more of variable influenza components, one or more conserved influenza component, or a combination thereof. In an embodiment, the conserved influenza component is M1, NP, PA, PB1, PB2, NS1, NS2, an immunogenic fragment thereof or combination thereof. In some embodiments, the same polynucleotide does not encode an influenza component such as M1 and/or NP. In other embodiments, the polynucleotide does not encode an influenza component selected from the group consisting of M1, NP, PA, PB1, PB2, NS1, NS2, an immunogenic fragment thereof and combinations thereof.

In an embodiment, an animal is immunized with an immunogenic composition of the invention and then boosted one or more times with the immunogenic composition. In an embodiment, the animal is boosted about 2 to about 4 weeks after the initial administration of the immunogenic composition. If the animal is to be boosted more than once, there is about a 2 to 12 week interval between boosts. In an embodiment, the animal is boosted at about 12 weeks and about 36 weeks after the initial administration of the immunogenic composition. In another embodiment, the animal is a mouse and the mouse is boosted 3 times at 2 week intervals. In yet another embodiment, the animal is a primate and the primate is boosted 1 month and 6 months after the initial administration of the immunogenic composition. The dose used to boost the immune response can include one more cytokines, chemokines, or immunomodulators not present in the priming dose of the immunogenic composition.

Viral delivery vectors are known and commercially available. Examples of viral vectors include, but are not limited to, recombinant poxvirus including vaccinia virus, lentivirus, adenovirus, or viral like particles (VLPs). In an embodiment, the viral vector is adenovirus type 5. Examples of commercially available viral delivery vectors include, but are not limited to, VIRAPOWER™ lentivirus expression system, VIRAPOWER™ adenovirus expression system (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, Calif.), and ADENO—X adenovirus expression system (Clontech, Mountain View, Calif.).

Any mode of administration can be used in the methods of the inventions so long as the mode results in the delivery or expression of the desired peptide or protein, in the desired tissue, in an amount sufficient to generate an immune response to influenza (e.g., influenza A) and/or to generate a prophylactically or therapeutically effective immune response to influenza in an animal. The immunogenic compositions of the invention can be administered by intramuscular (i.m.), intra-nasally (i.n.), subcutaneous (s.c.), intradermally or intrapulmonary route in dosage unit formulations containing conventional non-toxic pharmaceutically acceptable carriers, adjuvants, or vehicles. Other suitable routes of administration include, but are not limited to intratracheal, transdermal, intraocular, intranasal, inhalation, intracavity, and intravenous (i.v.) administration. Transdermal delivery includes, but is not limited to intradermal, transdermal, and transmucosal administration. Intracavity administration includes, but is not limited to administration into oral or nasal cavities. The immunogenic compositions can be coated onto particles or nanofibers for delivery or formulated in liposomes.

Administration modes of the present invention include needle injection; catheter infusion; biolistic injectors; particle accelerators such as, for example, “gene guns” or pneumatic “needleless” injectors such as Med-E-Jet (Vahlsing et al., 1994, J. Immunol. Methods, 171:11-22), Pigjet (Schrijver et al., 1997, Vaccine, 15:1908-1916), Biojector (Davis et al., 1994, Vaccine, 12:1503-1509; Gramzinski et al., 1998, Mol. Med., 4: 109-118), AdvantaJet (Linmayer et al., 1986, Diabetes Care, 9:294-297), or Medi-jector (Martins and Roedl, 1979, Occup. Med., 21:821-824); gelfoam sponge depots; other commercially available depot materials such as, for example, hydrogels, osmotic pumps, oral or suppositorial solid (tablet or pill) pharmaceutical formulations, topical skin creams, and decanting, polynucleotide coated suture (Qin, Y., et al., 1999, Life Sci., 65: 2193-2203), or topical applications during surgery. Certain modes of administration are intramuscular needle-based injection and pulmonary application via catheter infusion. Energy-assisted plasmid delivery (EAPD) methods may also be employed to administer the compositions of the invention. One such method involves the application of brief electrical pulses to injected tissues, a procedure commonly known as electroporation. See generally Mir et al., 1999, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci USA, 96:4262-7; Hartikka et al., 2001, Mol. Ther., 4:407-15; Mathiesen, 1999, Gene Ther., 6:508-14; Rizzuto et al., 2000, Hum. Gen. Ther. 11:1891-900.

The present disclosure is also directed to kits for practicing the methods of the invention.

VI. Compositions

The polypeptides or nucleic acids of the present invention can be used in pharmaceutical and vaccine compositions that are useful for administration to animals, including but not limited to humans, to block transmission of a variety of infectious diseases. The compositions are suitable for single administrations or a series of administrations. When given as a series, inoculations subsequent to the initial administration are given to boost the immune response and are typically referred to as booster inoculations.

For solid compositions, conventional nontoxic solid carriers may be used which include, for example, pharmaceutical grades of mannitol, lactose, starch, magnesium stearate, sodium saccharin, talcum, cellulose, glucose, sucrose, magnesium carbonate, and the like. For oral administration, a pharmaceutically acceptable nontoxic composition is formed by incorporating any of the normally employed excipients, such as those carriers previously listed, and generally 10-95% of active ingredient and, in some embodiments, e.g., at a concentration of 25%-75%.

For aerosol administration, the polypeptides or nucleic acids are supplied in finely divided form along with a surfactant and propellant. The surfactant must, of course, be nontoxic, and preferably soluble in the propellant. Representative of such agents are the esters or partial esters of fatty acids containing from 6 to 22 carbon atoms, such as caproic, octanoic, lauric, palmitic, stearic, linoleic, linolenic, olesteric and oleic acids with an aliphatic polyhydric alcohol or its cyclic anhydride. Mixed esters, such as mixed or natural glycerides may be employed. A carrier can also be included, as desired, as with, e.g., lecithin for intranasal delivery.

Compositions may include a carrier, excipient or adjuvant. Adjuvants include, for example, aluminum hydroxide, lipid A, killed bacteria, polysaccharide, mineral oil, Freund's incomplete adjuvant, Freund's complete adjuvant, aluminum phosphate, iron, zinc, a calcium salt, acylated tyrosine, an acylated sugar, a CpG oligonucleotide, a cationically derivatized polysaccharide, an anionically derivatized polysaccharide, a polyphosphazine, a biodegradable microsphere, TLR agonists, a monophosphoryl lipid A, MF59, oil in water emulsions AS03 and AS04, ISCOM, and quil A.

An embodiment provides an immunogenic composition comprising at least one naked DNA or a naked RNA encoding at least one polypeptide according to the disclosure. Naked DNA or RNA is DNA or RNA that does not have proteins or lipids associated with it.

Detection of Influenza Virus

The polypeptides of the invention are also useful for detecting influenza antibodies. Thus, for example, one can detect antibody response of an animal (e.g., a human) to a vaccine or to infection by a virus.

Essentially any assay can be used that detects the interaction of a polypeptide of the invention with an antibody or fragment thereof in a biological sample. Biological samples include blood, serum, tissue, urine samples, and biopsy samples. One or more of the polypeptides may be attached to a solid substrate such as a bead, ELISA plate, dipstick, or microarray.

The presence or absence of the antibody in the biological sample can be determined using methods known to those of skill in the art to detect the antigen antibody complex. Such methods include contacting the antibody antigen complex with a detectably labeled moiety that will bind to the antigen antibody complex and not to antibody or antigen alone. In some embodiments, the polypeptide of the invention and the biological sample are contacted in a single radial immunodiffusion (SRID) assay or a potency assay based on antigen alone or antigen-antibody complex. SRIDs are described in, e.g., Rodda, J. Guth. Microbiol. 14(5):479-482 (1981).

EXAMPLES

The following examples are offered to illustrate, but not to limit the claimed invention.

Example 1

We studied expression of truncated influenza Hemagglutinin protein in E. coli in an attempt to identify a fragment of Hemagglutinin that would fold properly following bacterial expression. Prior to this work, in spite of many years of study, those in the art have not successfully expressed properly folded trimeric functional Hemagglutinin protein in bacteria.

We initially prepared a set of Hemagglutinin truncations of H5N1 Hemagglutinin. Various HA fragments and their reactivity in binding, biophysical and functional assay is summarized in FIG. 13.

We subsequently successfully expressed in E. coli a truncated novel H1N1 (“swine” flu) Hemagglutinin fragment comprising only the HA-1 domain. This protein was designated H1N1-HA1 (1-330). Proteins were expressed in E. coli and were isolated as inclusion bodies. These inclusion bodies were partially purified by using detergents, and completely denatured using 6M guanidium. HCl and DTE. A variety of denaturing reagents can be used for denaturation of the proteins. The denatured proteins were then allowed to refold by dilution in renaturation buffer under redox condition. Then this renatured protein solution was dialyzed under controlled conditions to allow removal of denaturants, which in turn helped formation of disulfide bonds in the protein. Following dialysis, proteins were purified by affinity chromatography, ion-exchange and gel-filtration columns to obtain >90% pure proteins.

H1N1-HA1 (1-330) had proper folding and higher order quartnary structures as measured by gel filtration and reacted with red blood cells in a Hemagglutination assay. Plasmon resonance (SPR) analysis of antibody kinetics of H1N1-infected ferret response to bacterially expressed H1N1-HA1 (1-330) was determined. The kinetics of the response to H1N1-HA1 (1-330) was comparable to the ferret response to a mammalian-expressed (and thus properly folded) highlighting that properly folded bacterially expressed HA-1 can be used in lieu of mammalian expressed HA molecule for analysis of antibody responses following vaccination or infection and help develop tools for potency assays.

We immunized these properly folded proteins in rabbits and sheep. The rabbit and sheep sera show a comparable specific activity in a Single Radioimmunodiffusion (SRID) assay as seen for the sheep sera immunized with HA protein isolated from H1N1 virus (FIG. 4). SRID assay is used every year for HA quantification, which is important for vaccine potency and lot release. Properly folded HA1 proteins produced in bacteria can generate reagents in shorter time and help develop these reagent for vaccine potency. Notably, HA-1 administered to rabbits or sheep, the animals generated strong neutralizing antibody response.

In summary, bacterial expression systems can be used for production of properly folded HA proteins. This was shown in our hands for each of:

-   -   H5N1—A/Vietnam/1203/2004     -   H5N1—A/Indonesia/5/2005     -   H1N1—A/California/06/2009     -   H3N2—A/Victoria/210/2009     -   H3N2—A/Wisconsin/15/2009     -   H7N7—A/Netherlands/219/03(H7N7)

H1N1-HA1 protein (lacking HA2 and transmembrane domain) expressed in E. coli and folded in-vitro forms trimers and oligomers, and binds specifically to its receptor and also causes hemagglutination. Bacterially expressed HA1 generated potent neutralizing antibodies against novel H1N1 virus and H5N1 viruses. Strong specific SRID was generated following bacterial HA1 immunization in rabbits and sheep.

We have thus developed an economical and rapid method for generation of properly folded trimeric receptor binding HA molecules in a prokaryotic system. This simple approach could help to develop better cross-protective vaccine candidates and reduce the timeline for generating vaccines by several months. The protein produced contains only an HA1 segment, which contains most Flu-neutralizing epitopes. The protein does not contain the HA2 sequence.

We anticipate that the HA1 proteins described herein will be useful, among other things:

-   -   As standards for quantification of HA in vaccine lots     -   To generate SRID sera (e.g., from sheep), helping to develop         reagents to assess vaccine potency; and     -   Will result in reduced manufacturing timelines

Example 2

In April 2009, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced the detection of a novel strain of influenza virus in humans. The novel virus derived its genes from viruses circulating in the pig population (Smith, G. J. et al., Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 106:11709-11712 (2009); Smith, G. J. et al., Nature 459:1122-1125 (2009); Shinde, V. et al., N Engl J Med 360:2616-2625 (2009)). Due to sustained human-to-human transmission of this novel virus throughout the world, on June 11th the World Health Organization (WHO) raised the worldwide pandemic alert level to Phase 6.

The most effective way to curtail pandemics is by mass vaccination (Smith, N. M. et al., MMWR Recomm Rep 55:1-42 (2006); Monto, A. S Emerg Infect Dis 12:55-60 (2006)). At the moment there are two types of licensed vaccines against seasonal influenza in the US: subunit (split) inactivated vaccines (IV) and live cold adapted attenuated influenza vaccine (LAIV) (Fiore, A. E. et al., Curr Top Microbiol Immunol 333:43-82 (2009)) (Cheng, X. et al., PLoS ONE 4:e4436 (2009); Ohmit, S. E. et al., N Engl J Med 355:2513-2522 (2006)). Both vaccines are grown in chicken eggs. The process of constructing a new vaccine strain based on newly circulating viruses is quite lengthy. It involves in vivo (in chicken eggs) or in vitro (in cell culture using reverse genetics techniques) reassortment between the internal genes of a donor virus such as A/PR/8/34 with the hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA) of the new influenza strain. The candidate vaccine strains must be further selected based on their high growth capability in eggs before they can be used for production of vaccines. Moreover, the manufacturing process is limited in scalability by the use of eggs and the amount of purified virus that can be produced. This process is used for the production of seasonal influenza vaccines every year, but it may pose a clear impediment to initiation of rapid mass vaccination against spreading pandemic influenza, as was evident for the 2009 H1N1 virus.

Recombinant HA based vaccines provide an alternative that could save several months of manufacturing time, since the HA gene of the newly circulating strain is available shortly after virus isolation. Expression of HA in insect cells and mammalian cells are under development and/or clinical trials (Treanor, J. J. et al., J Infect Dis 173:1467-1470 (1996); Treanor, J. J. et al., J Infect Dis 193:1223-1228 (2006); Wei, C. J. et al., J Virol 82:6200-6208 (2008)). The main challenge to the recombinant technology is to ensure that the HA products resemble the native virion-associated trimeric spike proteins and can elicit robust immune responses targeting protective conformational epitopes in the globular domain of HA.

In previous studies, we constructed H5N1 whole-genome-phage-display libraries (GFPDL) and used them to map the antibody responses following human infection with highly pathogenic H5N1 (A/Vietnam/1203/2004), as well as post-H5N1 vaccination sera. We identified large HA1 fragments, encompassing the receptor binding domain (RBD), that were bound by broadly neutralizing human monoclonal antibodies from H5N1 recovered individuals and by polyclonal convalescent sera. Several HA1 fragments were expressed and purified from E. coli inclusion bodies, and were shown to be properly folded and presented conformational epitopes (Khurana, S. et al., PLoS Med 6:e1000049 (2009)). The bacterially expressed HA1 proteins were also shown to absorb most of the neutralizing activity in post-H5N1 infection and post-H5N1 vaccination sera (Khurana, S. et al., PLoS Med 6:e1000049 (2009); Khurana, S. et al., Science Translational Medicine 2:15ra15-15ra 15 (2010)). Based on these studies, it was predicted that HA1 fragments that contain most of the neutralizing antibody targets may generate protective immunity against emerging influenza strains.

Compared with insect or mammalian cells, expression of recombinant proteins in bacteria could present a viable alternative in terms of large scale vaccine production and a short time line suitable for rapid response in influenza pandemic. Several studies with bacterially expressed HA proteins based on the H5N1 avian influenza virus (AIV) were reported (Shen, S. et al., J Med Virol 80:1972-1983 (2008); Chiu, F. F. et al., Biochem Biophys Res Commun 383:27-31 (2009); Biesova, Z. et al., Vaccine 27:6234-6238 (2009)), and one clinical trial with a bacterially expressed fusion protein between the HA fragment and flagellin from Salmonella typhimurium type 2 (STF2), a TLR5 agonist is underway (Song, L. et al., PLoS ONE 3:e2257 (2008)). However, bacterially expressed HA proteins are not subjected to the post-translational modifications that takes place in eukaryotic cells, including step-wise glycosylation process important for proper folding of the HA protein, as well as trimerization and transport to the cell membrane (Copeland, C. S. et al., J Cell Biol 103:1179-1191 (1986); Ceriotti, A. et al., J Cell Biol 111:409-420 (1990); Roberts, P. C. et al., J Virol 67:3048-3060 (1993)). Indeed it was argued that in the absence of glycosylation, the newly synthesized HA proteins are not likely to fold properly or trimerize like native HA molecules, and may not present native conformational epitopes, which are important for generation of an effective protective immune response. Indeed the majority of the previous studies did not demonstrate proper folding and/or oligomerization of the HA proteins produced in prokaryotic systems (Shen, S. et al., J Med Virol 80:1972-1983 (2008); Chiu, F. F. et al., Biochem Biophys Res Commun 383:27-31 (2009); Biesova, Z. et al., Vaccine 27:6234-6238 (2009); Curtis-Fisk, J. et al., Protein Expr Purif 61:212-219 (2008); Xie, Q. M. et al., Poult Sci 88:1608-1615 (2009)). To address this concern, we established multiple assays to monitor the integrity of bacterially expressed HA proteins for proper folding, formation of trimers and oligomers, receptor binding, and agglutination of red blood cells (RBC). Here, we describe the properties of two novel H1N1 swine-like HA proteins, HA1 (1-330) and HA (1-480), expressed in E. coli and provide the first report of properly folded, trimeric, functional HA1 molecules capable of RBC agglutination reminiscent of native HA spike on influenza virion. Notably, vaccination of ferrets with both proteins resulted in reduced viral loads in nasal washes following challenge with novel H1N1 A/California/07/2009. However, HA1 (1-330) that causes hemagglutination is more easily produced, and shows better reduction of morbidity (body temperature elevation and weight loss) compared with HA (1-480) in vivo.

Results

Properties of Bacterially Expressed H1N1 HA1 (1-330) and HA (1-480)

DNA fragments encoding amino acid sequence 1-330 and 1-480 of HA from A/California/07/2009 were cloned as NotI-PacI inserts in the T7 promoter based expression vector with His6 (SEQ ID NO:48)tag at the C-terminus (Khurana, S. et al., Science Translational Medicine 2:15ra15-15ra15 (2010)). Both fragments of H1N1 HA expressed in E. coli Rosetta Gami cells (Novagen) localized to insoluble fraction (inclusion bodies). IBs were refolded in vitro under controlled redox conditions and purified by His Trap Fast flow chromatography. This process was previously shown to generate highly purified properly folded HA1 fragments from H5N1 (Khurana, S. et al., Science Translational Medicine 2:15ra15-15ra15 (2010)). The purified HA1 (1-330) and HA (1-480) proteins ran as a single band on SDS-PAGE with the anticipated MW of approximately 30 and 50 kDa, respectively (FIG. 2A)

To determine if the bacterially expressed (unglycosylated) HA1 (1-330) and HA (1-480) proteins are properly folded they were analyzed by CD spectroscopy. The change in elipticity at 222 nm, which monitors unfolding of α-helix structures over a range of temperatures (CD melt), confirmed that both HA1 (1-330) and HA (1-480) behaved as properly folded proteins with a melting temperature around 52° C. (FIG. 2B-C).

We next determined if the bacterially expressed proteins oligomerized into higher molecular forms, using gel filtration chromatography on Superdex S200 XK 16/60 column (GE-Healthcare). Surprisingly, the HA1 (1-330) protein contained at least 50% of trimers and oligomers (FIG. 2D), while the larger HA (1-480) contained only monomers (FIG. 2E).

Bacterially Expressed HA (1-330) but not HA (1-480) can Agglutinate Human Red Blood Cells

Hemagglutination of red blood cells (RBC) is a surrogate assay to measure the functionality of the influenza hemagglutinin. RBC agglutination requires properly folded HA with receptor binding domains that can bind to sialyloligosaccharide moieties on the RBC surface oligosaccharides. In addition, the presence of trimers and oligomers (mimicking the virion spikes) is required for the formation of RBC lattice (Matrosovich, M. et al., Rev Med Virol 13:85-97 (2003)). Therefore, it was important to determine the capacity of the HA1 (1-330) and HA (1-480) to agglutinate RBC. As seen in FIG. 2F, both H1N1 virions (positive control) and bacterially expressed H1N1 HA1 (1-330) protein very efficiently agglutinated human RBC. On the other hand, the HA (1-480) did not agglutinate human RBC. These difference in hemagglutination most likely reflected the presence of stable trimers and oligomers in the HA1 (1-330) but not HA (1-480) protein preparations.

Bacterially Expressed H1N1 HA (1-330) and HA (1-480) are Recognized by Sera From Ferrets Infected with A/California/07/2009

Ferrets are a good animal model for influenza virus pathogenesis. Following H1N1 infection, ferrets undergo transient loss of body weight, elevation in body temperature, and extensive viral replication in the upper and lower respiratory track on days 1-5, followed by viral clearance and recovery between Days 7-14 (Rowe et al. Virology, in press). Consecutive post-H1N1 infection ferret sera were evaluated for virus neutralizing antibody titers (FIG. 12A) and binding to recombinant H1N1 HA by surface plasmon resonance (SPR), using either mammalian cell expressed HA (Immune Technologies, NY) or the bacterially expressed H1N1 HA1 (1-330) and HA (1-480) proteins (FIG. 3B-D). MN titers were <20 during the first 5 days, followed by a rapid rise on days 7 and 14, and started to decline there after (FIG. 3A). In SPR, HA binding antibodies appeared as early as day 5 post infection and peaked on day 14. Importantly, binding of post-H1N1 infection ferret sera to whole HA from mammalian cells and to the bacterially expressed HA1 (1-330) and HA (1-480) proteins, demonstrated similar kinetics and binding avidity profiles (FIG. 3B-D), suggesting that the bacterially expressed proteins were antigenically similar to the mammalian cell derived HA. The increase in binding to properly folded H1N1-HA proteins correlated with an increase in the neutralization of A/California/07/2009 observed in sera from the post-H1N1 infected ferret sera on Day 7 and 14 when compared with sera from Day 5 post-H1N1 infection (FIG. 3A-D).

Properly Folded Bacterial H1N1 HA Proteins Adsorb Neutralizing Activity in Post-H1N1 Vaccination and Post-H1N1 Infection Sera

The functional relevance of binding to properly folded bacterially expressed H1N1-HA protein was further confirmed in adsorption experiments (FIG. 5). Both HA1 (1-330) and HA (1-480) proteins adsorbed most of the neutralizing activity of post-H1N1 vaccinated immune sheep sera (NIBSC), reducing the MN titer from 1:6,400 to <1:40 (FIG. 5, top panel). Similar results were obtained with post-H1N1 infection ferret sera from day 21. The H1N1-HA1 (1-330) reduced the neutralizing activity of the convalescent sera from 1:1,280 to <1:40, while residual neutralizing activity (1:80) was observed after adsorption of sera with the larger H1N1-HA (1-480) (FIG. 5, lower panel). The combined data from the analytical and functional assays demonstrated that both bacterially expressed proteins are properly folded and express antigenically relevant conformational neutralizing epitopes.

Immunization of Rabbits with Bacterially Expressed H1N1 HA1 (1-330) and HA (1-480) Elicit Potent Neutralizing Antibodies

To evaluate the immunogenicity of the bacterially expressed proteins, we immunized rabbits after mixing of HA1 (1-330) or HA (1-480) with Titermax adjuvant. The pre- and post vaccination sera were evaluated by microneutralization assay. Even after a single immunization with HA1 (1-330), rabbits had a MN titer of 1:40. After second and third immunizations high MN titers were measured (6,400 and 25,600, respectively) (FIG. 6, top panel). The HA (1-480) elicited H1N1 neutralizing antibodies only after the second and third boosts, and the peak MN titers (3,200 and 6,400, respectively) were lower compared with the HA1 (1-330) immunized rabbits (FIG. 6, lower panel).

Vaccination and Challenge Studies in Ferrets

Female Fitch ferrets (n=4 in each group) were vaccinated intramuscularly in the quadricep muscle on day 0 and boosted on day 21 with either H1N1-HA1 (1-330) or HA (1-480) proteins at 7.5 and 30 μg dose combined with Titermax adjuvant. All animals were challenged with wild type A/California/07/2009 virus on day 35. Serum samples were collected after vaccinations and analyzed in HAI (FIG. 7). The 30 μg dose induced 2-4 fold higher titers compared with the 7.5 μg dose for both bacterially expressed proteins (FIG. 7). However, at the lower dose of 7.5 μg, the HA1 (1-330) consistently elicited higher HAI titers compared with the HA (1-480) at the same dose.

Following second vaccination, ferrets were challenged intranasally with 1×10⁶ 50% egg infectious doses (EID₅₀) (˜1×10^(5.75) TCID₅₀/ml) of A/California/07/2009 virus in a volume of one milliliter. To determine viral loads in nasal washes, each ferret was administered each day post-challenge with 1.5 ml of 0.9% saline to each nare and washes were collected for virus titer determinations using the plaque assay.

In unvaccinated animals (naïve), viral loads in the nasal washes were highest on day 1, gradually declining on days 3 and 5 (FIG. 8A) and were back to baseline on day 7 as previously described (Rowe et al. Virology in press). Among the vaccinated animals, the high dose groups (30 μg), receiving either HA1 (1-330) or HA (1-480), reduced viral titers by >2 logs as early as day 1 post challenge. In the 7.5 μg vaccinated animals, virus replication on day 1 was observed, followed by a more rapid decline compared with the unvaccinated animals (FIG. 8A). Between day 3 and 5, a more rapid virus clearance was observed in the HA1 (1-330) vaccinated groups compared with the HA (1-480) vaccinated group or the naïve group (FIG. 8A).

In terms of morbidity, sustained elevation in body temperatures were measured in the naïve group post H1N1 virus challenge between days 1-4 (FIG. 8B). Inactivity and weight loss were also recorded up to day 7, followed by a slow recovery that did not reach normal weights by day 13 (termination) (FIG. 8C and data not shown). The HA1 (1-330) vaccinated animals that received 30 μg protein showed no temperature elevation and no weight loss (FIG. 8B-C). The 7.5 μg HA (1-330) vaccine dose also showed no weight loss and only a brief mild increase in body temperature on Day 2 (FIG. 8B-C). The HA (1-480) vaccinated animals at the 30 μg dose also showed no weight loss, and a transient elevation in body temperature on days 1-3 (not as high as in the naive group). But the animals that received HA (1-480) at the lower dose (7.5 μg) showed an increase in body temperature similar to the naïve group and some weight loss on days 2-6 post challenge.

Together, these data demonstrate that properly folded bacterially expressed unglycosylated H1N1 HA proteins, elicited high neutralizing antibody titers in ferrets and significantly curtailed virus replication and morbidity following infection with the H1N1 A/California/07/2009 virus. Importantly, at the lower vaccine dose of 7.5 μg, the HA1 (1-330) that contained both trimers and oligomers protected ferrets from morbidity more efficiently than the HA (1-480), which only contain monomers. The clinical symptoms correlated with the observed HAI titers prior to challenge.

Discussion

The recent 2009-H1N1 swine-like virus influenza pandemic highlighted the need to rapidly produce enough vaccine doses for global vaccination brought to light the shortcomings of the traditional process of manufacturing influenza vaccines and the need to use alternative approaches for a more rapid generation of vaccine for global immunization in response to impending influenza pandemic. Bacterially expressed HA proteins can be manufactured rapidly and are amenable to mass production that can fulfill global vaccine needs. The main challenge to the prokaryotic production system is to ascertain proper refolding of expressed HA proteins representative of native HA spike structures on influenza virus. In addition to properly folded HA monomers, higher MW structures (i.e., trimers and oligomers) are important and likely to contribute to the optimal immunogenicity of the HA, since all influenza neutralizing antibodies are conformation dependent and some trimer specific antibodies have potent neutralizing activity (Wilson, I. A. Annu Rev Immunol 8:737-771 (1990)). In eggs and mammalian cells, post-translational glycosylation contribute to the proper folding, trimerization and transport of the newly synthesized HA molecules to the cell membrane (Copeland, C. S. et al., J Cell Biol 103:1179-1191 (1986)). However, in the case of recombinant HA proteins, trimerization is not always found even in eukaryotic cell substrates (Wei, C. J. et al., J Virol 82:6200-6208 (2008)).

The main findings in the current study are: (a) bacterially expressed H1N1 HA1 (1-330) and HA (1-480) can be purified as properly folded proteins as determined by CD spectroscopy, SPR analyses and adsorption of neutralizing activity from convalescent ferret sera; (b) the HA1 (1-330) contained >50% trimeric and oligomeric forms and could agglutinate human RBC, while the HA (1-480) was predominantly monomeric and did not agglutinate RBC; (c) both HA1 (1-330) and HA (1-480) induced H1N1-neutralizing antibodies in rabbits after two vaccinations; (d) in the ferret H1N1 challenge model, vaccination with bacterially expressed HA1 (1-330) and HA (1-480) at 30 μg HA induced high titers of neutralizing antibodies and protected animals from morbidity (elevated body temperature and weight loss) following challenge with novel H1N1 A/California/07/2009 virus; (e) following vaccination of ferrets with a lower dose (7.5 μg HA), the HA1 (1-330) vaccinated group demonstrated lower morbidity and more rapid virus clearance compared with the HA (1-480) vaccinated group.

This example extends our previous reports with the H5N1 highly pathogenic virus, in which we have used whole-genome-phage display libraries (GFPDL) to map the antibody responses following human infection or vaccination. We have identified large HA1 fragments, encompassing the receptor binding domain (RBD), that were bound by broadly neutralizing human monoclonal antibodies from H5N1 recovered individuals and by their polyclonal convalescent sera (Khurana, S. et al., PLoS Med 6:e1000049 (2009)). In a subsequent study, we found that following vaccination with inactivated H5N1 (A/Vietnam/1203/2004) influenza vaccine the immune sera from the MF59-adjuvanted vaccinated individuals bound with much higher avidity to bacterially expressed properly folded H5 HA1 proteins compared with unadjuvanted vaccine sera (Khurana, S. et al., Science Translational Medicine 2:15ra15-15ra15 (2010)). Importantly, the bacterially expressed HA1 proteins were also shown to absorb most of the neutralizing activity in post infection and post vaccination sera (Khurana, S. et al., PLoS Med 6:e1000049 (2009); Khurana, S. et al., Science Translational Medicine 2:15ra15-15ra15 (2010)). Based on these studies, it was predicted that bacterially-expressed HA1 fragments if properly folded, could be useful as vaccines against emerging influenza strains.

In the current example, we found that expression and purification of properly folded H1N1 HA1 (1-330) in bacterial system was more efficient and gave higher yield compared with the larger HA (1-480). While 50-60 mg of >90% purified HA (1-330) protein can be obtained from 1 liter of bacterial culture, the yield for HA (1-480) was only 10 mg/L. Interestingly, the HA (1-480) was less efficient in RBC agglutination and contained primarily monomers. The difference in adsorption of neutralizing antibodies in post-H1N1 infection sera for the two proteins, might be due to the presence of some trimer-specific neutralizing antibodies in the post-H1N1 infection ferret sera that can be only bound and adsorbed by the H1N1-HA (1-330), since it contains trimers while the H1N1-HA (1-480) is only present in a monomeric form. This is in agreement with previous reports on full length HA ectodomain proteins expressed in variety of cell substrates wherein peptide linkers were introduced to facilitate oligomerization (Wei, C. J. et al., J Virol 82:6200-6208 (2008)). Moreover, oligomerized product showed better vaccine efficacy than its monomeric counterpart (Wei, C. J. et al., J Virol 82:6200-6208 (2008)).

While both proteins were immunogenic in ferrets at the high dose of 30 μg, the HA1 (1-330) was more immunogenic and protected ferrets from H1N1 morbidity more efficiently at a lower dose (7.5 μg) compared with the HA (1-480) protein. In the case of mass vaccination, dose sparing is likely to be of great impact.

Our study describes the production of globular HA1 domain lacking the HA2 transmembrane protein, followed by controlled redox refolding conditions, resulting in a protein that contains functional trimers and oligomers without the addition of external trimerization sequences. The oligomeric HA1 mimics the trimeric globular heads on the virion spikes and generated neutralizing antibodies at the protective range (≧1:40) after a single vaccination of rabbits and ferrets. In our recent study on the antibody repertoires elicited by inactivated H5N1 vaccines, we noted that pre-vaccination sera contained antibodies against H5N1 HA1 segments that had 98% homology with the seasonal H1N1 HA2. Furthermore, following vaccination with the inactivated vaccine the majority of antibodies in the post second boost immune sera were against HA2 rather than HA1 epitopes. Since most of “protective” antigenic sites are mapped to the globular domain, surrounding the RBS, using an HA1 immunogen rather than intact HA (or inactivated subunit vaccine) is likely to generate a more focused antibody repertoires with enhanced kinetics. This approach could provide a simple and fast alternative for the current process of vaccine production in response to an impending pandemic.

In summary, in the face of an impending influenza pandemic, HA1 proteins derived from the newly spreading virus can be rapidly expressed in bacterial systems several months before the traditional approach using vaccine strains generated via either gene reassortment or reverse genetics, followed by adaptation to growth in eggs. With appropriate testing methods in place to monitor proper folding and biological activity (hemagglutination assay), this simple and efficient approach may provide an early vaccine for large scale production to fulfill global vaccine needs in a much shorter time frame. Moreover, bacterially produced HA vaccines may also be an alternative for humans with known egg allergies that cannot be immunized with traditional influenza vaccines produced in eggs.

Materials and Methods

Expression Vector and Cloning of H1N1-HA1 (1-330) and HA (1-480)

cDNA corresponding to the HA gene segment of A/California/07/2009 was generated from RNA isolated from egg-grown virus strain, and was used for cloning. pSK is a T7 promoter based expression vector where the desired polypeptide can be expressed as fusion protein with His6 tag at the C-terminus. DNA encoding HA1 (1-330) and HA (1-480) were cloned as NotI-PacI inserts in the pSK expression vector.

Protein Expression, Refolding and Purification

E. coli Rosetta Gami cells (Novagen) were used for expression of H1N1-HA1 (1-330) and HA (1-480). Following expression, inclusion bodies (IB) were isolated by cell lysis and multiple washing steps with 1% Triton X-100. The final IB pellets were resuspended in denaturation buffer containing 6M Guanidine Hydrochloride and dithioerythreitol (DTE) at final protein concentration of 10 mg/ml, and were centrifuged to remove residual debris. For refolding, supernatants were slowly diluted 100-fold in redox folding buffer (Khurana, S. et al., Science Translational Medicine 2:15ra15-15ra15 (2010)). The renaturation protein solution was dialyzed against 20 mM Tris HCl pH 8.0 to remove the denaturing agents. The dialysates were filtered through 0.45 μm filters, and were subjected to purification by HisTrap Fast flow chromatography. This process was previously shown to generate highly purified properly folded HA1 fragments from H5N1 (Khurana, S. et al., Science Translational Medicine 2:15ra15-15ra15 (2010)).

Circular Dichroism (CD)-Monitored Equilibrium Unfolding Experiment

To demonstrate that the bacterially expressed HA fragments are properly folded they were analyzed by CD spectroscopy (Khurana, S. et al., Science Translational Medicine 2:15ra15-15ra15 (2010)). For CD spectroscopy in solution, H1N1-HA proteins were dissolved in 20 mM PBS, pH 7.4, at 0.1 mg/ml. The change in elipticity at 222 nm (to follow unfolding of α-helices) during unfolding was monitored using a J-715 Circular Dichroism system (JASCO). The unfolding reaction was initiated by subjecting the protein in PBS to 10 C/min increments. The experiments were carried out in triplicate.

Gel Filtration Chromatography

H1N1-HA1 (1-330) and HA (1-480) at a concentration of 5 mg/ml were analyzed on Superdex S200 XK 16/60 column (GE-Healthcare) pre-equilibrated with PBS, and the protein elution monitored at 280 nm. Protein molecular weight marker standards (GE healthcare) were used for column calibration and generation of a standard curve to identify the molecular weights of the test protein sample.

Affinity Measurements by Surface Plasmon Resonance

Steady-state equilibrium binding of post-H1N1 vaccine or post-H1N1 infection sera was monitored at 25° C. using a ProteOn surface plasmon resonance biosensor (BioRad Labs). The H1N1-HA proteins were coupled to a GLC sensor chip (BioRad Labs) with amine coupling with 500 resonance units (RU) in the test flow cells. Ten-fold dilution of animal sera (60 μl) was injected at a flow rate of 30 μl/min (120-sec contact time). Flow was directed over a mock surface to which no protein was bound, followed by the HA protein coupled surface. Responses from the protein surface were corrected for the response from the mock surface and for responses from a separate, buffer only, injection. MAb 2D7 (anti-CCR5) and naïve ferret sera were used as a negative control antibody in the experiments. Binding kinetics for the animal sera and the data analysis were performed with BioRad ProteON manager software (version 2.0.1). Similar binding studies were previously conducted with H5N1 HA1 proteins. Human monoclonal antibodies with conformation-dependent epitopes bound only to the properly folded HA proteins that were purified at pH 7.2 (identical to the current study) but not to unfolded HA1 proteins, purified at pH 3.0 (Khurana, S. et al., Science Translational Medicine 2:15ra15-15ra15 (2010)).

Hemagglutination Assay

Human erythrocytes were separated from whole blood (Lampire Biologicals). After isolation and washing, 30 μl of 1% human RBC suspension (vol/vol in 1% BSA-PBS) was added to 30 μl serial dilutions of HA protein or influenza virus in 1% BSA-PBS in a U-bottom 96-well plate (total volume, 60 μl). Agglutination was read after incubation for 30 min at room temperature.

Neutralizing Antibodies Adsorption with HA Proteins

Five-fold diluted post-H1N1 vaccination (NIBSC) sera or post-H1N1 infection ferret sera (500 μl) were added to 0.5 mg of purified HA-His₆ or to control GST-His₆ protein, and incubated for 1 hr at RT. Nickel-nitrilotriacetic acid (Ni-NTA) magnetic beads (200 μl) (Qiagen) were added for 20 min at RT on end-to-end shaker, to capture the His-tagged proteins and the antibodies bound to them, followed by magnetic separation. Supernatants containing the unbound antibodies were collected. The pre- and post-adsorbed sera were subjected to virus microneutralization assay.

Rabbit Immunization and Virus Neutralization Assays

White New Zealand rabbits were immunized three times intramuscularly at 21-day intervals with 100 μg of purified H1N1-HA1 (1-330) or HA 1-480) proteins with Titermax adjuvant (Titermax Inc). Virus-neutralizing titers of pre- and post vaccination rabbit sera were determined in a microneutralization assay based on the methods of the pandemic influenza reference laboratories of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Low pathogenicity H1N1 virus, generated by reverse genetics, was obtained from CDC(X-179A). The experiments were conducted with three replicates for each serum sample and performed at least twice.

Vaccination of Ferrets and Blood Collection

Ferrets used in the study were tested to be sero-negative for circulating seasonal influenza A (H1N1 and H3N2) and influenza B viruses by HAI. Female Fitch ferrets (n=4 in each group) were vaccinated intramuscularly in the quadriceps muscle on day 0 and boosted on day 21 and then challenged with virus on day 35. Control animals (n=4) were mock vaccinated with phosphate buffered saline (PBS; pH 7.2). Each animal was vaccinated with one of two doses (30 μg or 7.5 μg) of recombinant HA in sterile 0.9% saline. Each vaccine was mixed with the adjuvant formulation, TiterMax (TiterMax USA, Inc, Norcross, Ga., US) at a 1:1 ratio. The volume for all intra-muscular vaccinations was 0.5 ml. The first and second vaccinations were given in the left and right hind legs, respectively. Blood was collected from anesthetized ferrets via the anterior vena cava. The collected blood was transferred to a tube containing a serum separator and clot activator and allowed to clot at room temperature. Tubes were centrifuged at 6000 rpm for 10 minutes; serum was separated, aliquoted and stored at −80±50 C. All procedures were in accordance with the National Research Council (NRC) Guidelines for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, the Animal Welfare Act, and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC)/National Institutes of Health (NIH) Bio-Safety Guidelines in Microbiological and Biomedical Laboratories and approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC).

Infection and Monitoring of Ferret

Animal experiments with virus A/California/07/2009 were performed in the AALAC-accredited ABSL-3 enhanced facility. Animals were infected and monitored as previously described (Zitzow, L. A. et al., J Virol 76:4420-4429 (2002)), except using 5% isofluorane anesthesia. Briefly, ferrets were anesthetized with isofluorane and infected intranasally with 1×10⁶ 50% egg infectious doses (EID₅₀) (˜1×10^(5.75) TCID₅₀/ml) of A/California/07/2009 in a volume of one milliliter. Animals were monitored for temperature, weight loss, loss of activity, nasal discharge, sneezing and diarrhea daily following viral challenge. To determine viral load from nasal washes, 1.5 ml of 0.9% saline was administered to each nare and the wash was collected each day post-challenge of each ferret. Temperatures were measured through use of an implantable temperature transponder (BMDS, Sayre, Pa.) and were recorded at approximately the same time each day. Pre-infection values were averaged to obtain a baseline temperature for each ferret. Clinical signs of sneezing and nasal discharge, inappetence, dyspnea, neurological signs, respiratory distress, and level of activity were assessed daily. A scoring system was used to assess activity level where 0=alert and playful; 1=alert but playful only when stimulated; 2=alert but not playful when stimulated; 3=neither alert nor playful when stimulated. Based on the daily scores for each animal in a group, a relative inactivity index was calculated (Zitzow, L. A. et al., J Virol 76:4420-4429 (2002)).

Hemagglutinination Inhibition (HAI) Assay

RDE-treated ferret sera were serially diluted in v-bottom 96-well microtiter plates followed by the addition of 8 hemagglutination units (HAU) of influenza virus. Following an incubation of approximately 20 minutes, 0.5% suspension of turkey RBC (TRBC) in PBS (pH 7.2) were added and mixed by agitation. The TRBCs were allowed to settle for 30 minutes at room temperature and HAI titers were determined by the reciprocal value of the last dilution of sera which completely inhibited hemagglutination of TRBC. A negative titer was defined as 1:10.

Determination of Viral Loads

Viral loads in nasal washes were determined by the plaque assay. Briefly, MDCK cells plated in 6-well tissue culture plates were inoculated with 0.1 ml of virus-containing sample, serially diluted in Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium (DMEM). Virus was adsorbed to cells for 1 h, with shaking every 15 min. Wells were overlaid with 1.6% w/v Bacto agar (DIFCO, BD Diagnostic Systems, Palo Alto, Calif., USA) mixed 1:1 with L-15 media (Cambrex, East Rutherford, N.J., USA) containing antibiotics and 0.6 mg/ml trypsin (Sigma, St. Louis, Mo., USA). Plates incubated for 5 days. Cells were fixed for 10 minutes using 70% v/v Ethanol and then overlaid with 1% w/v crystal violet. Cells were then washed with deionized water to visualize plaques. Plaques were counted and compared to uninfected cells.

Example 3

The recent global spread of swine-origin H1N1 highlighted the need for rapid development of effective vaccines against pandemic influenza viruses. Much of our recent knowledge was derived from studies with the highly pathogenic (HP) H5N1 avian influenza A viruses (AIV) (Treanor et al., N Engl J Med 354:1343-51 (2006)). The H5N1 viruses still cause severe human disease with >60% mortality, and may undergo adaptation for human-to-human transmission.

Antibodies specific to hemagglutinin (HA) are believed to be the best correlate of protection against influenza virus infection and are the primary end point used to evaluate vaccine immunogenicity. Production of hemagglutinin using recombinant technology could overcome the constraints of traditional influenza vaccine manufacturing that require several months for generation of vaccine viruses using reassortment/reverse genetics, and adaptation for high growth in eggs, suffer from bottlenecks at every step, expensive and dependent on supply of eggs. But using recombinant HA proteins pose several challenges; in addition to proper folding of the HA monomers, trimer formation is an important property of native HA spike proteins required for cell attachment (Wilson et al., Nature 289:366-73 (1981)) and for optimal immunogenicity (Wei et al., J Virol 82:6200-8 (2008)). On virions, the trimeric HA complex is stabilized by three 76 A long helices that form a triple coiled-coil structure and consists of residues primarily from the HA2 region. Stability studies indicated that the HA2 tails contribute 28.4 kcal mol⁻¹ and the HA1 heads only 5.3 kcal mol⁻¹ to the stability of the trimers (Eisenberg, D., and A. D. McLachlan, Nature 319:199-203 (1986); Wilson, I. A., and N. J. Cox, Annu Rev Immunol 8:737-71 (1990)). The expression of recombinant HA ectodomain in mammalian cells required the addition of multimerization “foldon” at the C-terminus in order to produce stable oligomeric structures (Wei et al., J Virol 82:6200-8 (2008)). Therefore, the prediction was that HA1 globular head (without HA2) will not form stable trimers (Bizebard et al., Nature 376:92-4 (1995)).

Expression of recombinant HA proteins in bacterial systems could provide a rapid and economical approach for early response to impending influenza pandemic. However, it was not clear that unglycosylated proteins will present antigenically relevant epitopes. Most of the influenza protective antigenic sites are conformation dependent and map primarily to HA1 globular head (Stevens et al., Science 303:1866-70 (2004); Wiley et al., Nature 289:373-8 (1981)). Previously, we used H5N1 whole-genome-phage-display libraries (GFPDL) to map the antibody repertoires following human infection with highly pathogenic (HP) H5N1 (A/Vietnam/1203/2004) AIV as well as in post-H5N1 vaccination sera (Khurana et al., Sci Transl Med 2:15ra5; Khurana et al., PLoS Med 6:e1000049 (2009)). We identified large HA1 fragments, encompassing the receptor binding domain (RBD) that bound broadly neutralizing human monoclonal antibodies and polyclonal sera from H5N1 recovered individuals. Furthermore, in a recent study in our laboratory, bacterially expressed globular HA1 (1-330) and HA ectodomain (1-480) derived from novel H1N1 A/California/04/2009 were compared. Both proteins were properly folded. However, only the HA1 globular head (1-330) formed oligomers and agglutinated human RBC. In contrast, the HA ectodomain (1-480) contained only monomers and did not agglutinate RBC (Khurana et al., PLoS One 5:e11548).

To better understand the phenomenon of oligomerization of HA1 globular domain in absence of HA2 sequence, we expressed a series of H5N1-derivd HA1 proteins with N- and C-terminal deletions and point mutantions, and correlated their ability to form oligomers with functional hemagglutinin properties including receptor binding and agglutination of red blood cells (RBC). Furthermore to figure out the importance of oligomerization for immunogenicity and cross-protection, these HA1 proteins were used in rabbit vaccination and in the ferret influenza HP H5N1 virus challenge model. Our findings show that functional oligomeric rHA1 proteins can be produced efficiently in bacterial systems and provide rapid response for development of effective vaccines against emerging influenza strains.

Materials and Methods:

Expression Vector and Cloning of H5N1-HA1 Derivatives

cDNA corresponding to the HA gene segment of H5N1-A/Vietnam/1203/2004 was generated from RNA isolated from egg-grown virus strain, and were used for cloning. pSK is a T7 promoter based expression vector where the desired polypeptide can be expressed as fusion protein with His6 (SEQ ID NO:48)tag at the C-terminus (Khurana et al., PLoS Med 6:e1000049 (2009)). DNA encoding HA1 (1-330) of the ANietnam/1203/2004 and its various amino- and carboxy-termini deletions were cloned as NotI-PacI inserts in the pSK expression vector.

Protein Expression, Refolding and Purification

E. coli Rosetta Gami cells (Novagen) were used for expression of various H5N1-A/Vietnam/1203/2004 HA1 and its various deletions. Following expression, inclusion bodies were isolated by cell lysis and multiple washing steps with 1% Triton X-100. Final Inclusion Bodies (IBs) pellet was resuspended in denaturation buffer containing 6 M Guanidine Hydrochloride and dithioerythreitol (DTE) at final protein concentration of 10 mg/ml and was centrifuged to remove residual debris. For refolding, supernatant was slowly diluted 100-folds in redox folding buffer. The renaturation protein solution was dialyzed against 20 mM Tris HCl pH 8.0 to remove the denaturing agents. The dialysate was filtered through 0.45 μM filter and was subjected to purification by H isTrap Fast flow chromatography.

Circular Dichroism (CD)-Monitored Equilibrium Unfolding Experiment

To demonstrate that the bacterially expressed HA fragments are properly folded they were analyzed by CD melt spectroscopy. For CD spectroscopy in solution, H1N1-HA proteins were dissolved in 20 mM PBS, pH 7.4, at 0.5 mg/ml. The change in elipticity at 222 nm (to follow unfolding of α-helices) during unfolding was monitored using a J-715 Circular Dichroism system (JASCO). The unfolding reaction was initiated by subjecting the protein in PBS to 1° C./min increments. The experiments were carried out in triplicate.

Gel Filtration Chromatography

Proteins at a concentration of 5 mg/ml were analyzed on Superdex S200 XK 16/60 column (GE-Healthcare) pre-equilibrated with PBS, and the protein elution was monitored at 280 nm. Protein molecular weight marker standards (GE healthcare) were used for column calibration and generation of standard curve to identify the molecular weights of the test protein sample.

Hemagglutination Assay

Human erythrocytes were separated from whole blood (Lampire Biologicals). After isolation and washing, 30 μl of 1% human RBC suspension (vol/vol in 1% BSA-PBS) were added to 30 μl serial dilutions of purified HA1 proteins or influenza virus in 1% BSA-PBS in a U-bottom 96-well plate (total volume, 60 μl). Agglutination was read after incubation for 30 min at room temperature Agglutination inhibition experiments were performed by using anti-H5N1 human MAb FLA5.10. Experiments were performed as described earlier, except that before addition to RBCs, HA proteins were preincubated for 15 min at room temperature with the human MAb.

Receptor Binding Assay Using Surface Plasmon Resonance

Binding of different HA1 derivatives to fetuin (natural homolog of sialic acid cell surface receptor proteins) and its asialylated counterpart (Asialo-fetuin) was analyzed at 25° C. using a ProteOn surface plasmon resonance biosensor (BioRad Labs). Fetuin or Asialo-fetuin (Sigma) were coupled to a GLC sensor chip with amine coupling at 1000 resonance units (RU) in the test flow cells. Samples of 60 μl freshly prepared H5N1-HA1 proteins at 10 μg/ml were injected at a flow rate of 30 μl/min (120-sec contact time). Flow was directed over a mock surface to which no protein was bound, followed by the fetuin or asialo-fetuin coupled surface. Responses from the protein surface were corrected for the response from the mock surface and for responses from a separate, buffer only, injection. Binding kinetics and data analysis were performed with BioRad ProteON manager software (version 2.0.1).

Microneutralization Assay

Viral-neutralizing activity was analyzed in a microneutralization assay based on the methods of the pandemic influenza reference laboratories of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Low pathogenicity H5N1 viruses, generated by reverse genetics, were obtained from CDC: A/Vietnam/1203/2004 (SJCRH, clade 1), A/Indonesia/5/2005 (PR8-IBCDC-RG2; clade 2.1), A/Turkey/1/05 (NTBRG-23; clade 2.2), A/Anhui/1/05 (IBCDC-RG5, clade 2.3.4). The experiments were conducted with three replicates for each serum sample and performed at least twice.

Rabbit Immunization

New Zealand rabbits were immunized thrice intra-muscularly at 21-days interval with 100 μg of purified HA1 proteins and its derivatives with Titermax adjuvant (TiterMax Inc).

Ferret Immunization and Challenge Studies

Vaccination of Ferrets and Blood Collection

Ferrets (Marshall Farms, used in the study were tested to be sero-negative for circulating seasonal influenza A (H1N1 and H3N2) and influenza B viruses by HAI. Female Fitch ferrets (n=5 in each group) were vaccinated intramuscularly in the quadriceps muscle on day 0 and boosted on day 21 and then challenged with virus on day 35. Control animals (n=5) were mock vaccinated with phosphate buffered saline (PBS; pH 7.2). Each animal was vaccinated with one of two doses (15 μg or 3 μg) of recombinant HA in sterile 0.9% saline. Each vaccine was mixed with the adjuvant formulation, TiterMax (TiterMax USA, Inc, Norcross, Ga., US) at a 1:1 ratio. The volume for all intra-muscular vaccinations was 0.5 ml. The first and second vaccinations were given in the left and right hind legs, respectively. Blood was collected from anesthetized ferrets via the anterior vena cava. The collected blood was transferred to a tube containing a serum separator and clot activator and allowed to clot at room temperature. Tubes were centrifuged at 6000 rpm for 10 minutes; serum was separated, aliquoted and stored at −80±5° C. All procedures were in accordance with the National Research Council (NRC) Guidelines for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, the Animal Welfare Act, and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC)/National Institutes of Health (NIH) Bio-Safety Guidelines in Microbiological and Biomedical Laboratories and approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC).

Infection and Monitoring of Ferret

Animal experiments with H5N1 influenza virus were performed in the AALAC-accredited ABSL-3 enhanced facility. Animals were infected and monitored as previously described (Zitzow et al., J Virol 76:4420-9 (2002)), except using 5% isofluorane anesthesia. Briefly, ferrets were anesthetized with isofluorane and infected intranasally with 1×10⁶ 50% egg infectious doses (EID₅₀) (˜1×10^(5.75) TCID50/ml) of A/Vietnam/1203/2004 (clade 1) or A/Whooperswan/Mongolia/244/2005 (clade 2.2) in a volume of one milliliter. Animals were monitored for temperature, weight loss, loss of activity, nasal discharge, sneezing and diarrhea daily following viral challenge. To determine viral load from nasal washes, 1.5 ml of 0.9% saline was administered to each nare and the wash was collected each day post-challenge of each ferret. Temperatures were measured through use of an implantable temperature transponder (BMDS, Sayre, Pa.) and were recorded at approximately the same time each day. Pre-infection values were averaged to obtain a baseline temperature for each ferret. Clinical signs of sneezing and nasal discharge, inappetence, dyspnea, neurological signs, respiratory distress, and level of activity were assessed daily. A scoring system was used to assess activity level where 0=alert and playful; 1=alert but playful only when stimulated; 2=alert but not playful when stimulated; 3=neither alert nor playful when stimulated. Based on the daily scores for each animal in a group, a relative inactivity index was calculated (Zitzow et al., J Virol 76:4420-9 (2002)).

Determination of Viral Loads

Viral loads in nasal washes were determined by the plaque assay. Briefly, MDCK cells plated in 6-well tissue culture plates were inoculated with 0.1 ml of virus-containing sample, serially diluted in Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium (DMEM). Virus was adsorbed to cells for 1 h, with shaking every 15 min. Wells were overlaid with 1.6% w/v Bacto agar (DIFCO, BD Diagnostic Systems, Palo Alto, Calif., USA) mixed 1:1 with L-15 media (Cambrex, East Rutherford, N.J., USA) containing antibiotics and 0.6 mg/ml trypsin (Sigma, St. Louis, Mo., USA). Plates incubated for 5 days. Cells were fixed for 10 minutes using 70% v/v Ethanol and then overlaid with 1% w/v crystal violet. Cells were then washed with deionized water to visualize plaques. Plaques were counted and compared to uninfected cells.

Hemagglutinination Inhibition (HAI) Assay

RDE-treated ferret sera were serially diluted in v-bottom 96-well microtiter plates followed by the addition of 8 hemagglutination units (HAU) of influenza virus. Following an incubation of approximately 20 minutes, 0.5% suspension of horse RBC(HRBC) in PBS (pH 7.2) were added and mixed by agitation. The HRBCs were allowed to settle for 30 minutes at room temperature and HAI titers were determined by the reciprocal value of the last dilution of sera which completely inhibited hemagglutination of HRBC. A negative titer was defined as 1:10.

Results

Bacterially-expressed HA1 proteins with N- and C-terminal deletions are properly folded and bind H5N1-neutralizing human MAb FLA5.10.

To better understand the role of HA1 structure-function and its effect on generating protective immunity following immunization, we expressed a series of H5N1-derived HA1 proteins with N- and C-terminal deletions and evaluated their ability to form oligomers and to agglutinate red blood cells (RBC). The intact H5N1 HA1 and a series of truncated proteins were expressed in E. coli and isolated from inclusion bodies by denaturation and slow renaturation under controlled redox refolding conditions as previously described (Khurana et al., Sci Transl Med 2:15ra5; Khurana et al., PLoS Med 6:e1000049 (2009)). The His6 (SEQ ID NO:48)tagged fusion proteins were purified using Ni-NTA chromatography to >95% purity (FIG. 9A). Proper folding was confirmed by binding to a panel of H5N1-neutralizing human monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) that recognize conformational epitopes in the HA-RBD (Khurana et al., PLoS Med 6:e1000049 (2009)) and do not bind to unfolded HA proteins (Khurana et al., Sci Transl Med 2:15ra5). As shown in FIG. 9B, all bacterially expressed HA1 proteins containing receptor binding domain (RBD) bound human MAb FLA5.10 (as well as huMAbs FLD21.140 and FLD.3.14) with similar kinetics as determined by Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR). HA (1-104) which does not contain the RBD did not bind to three huMAbs.

The interaction between individual HA RBD and the sialyloligosaccharides moieties is rather weak (K_(diss)>10⁻⁴ M) (Matrosovich, M., and H. D. Klenk, Rev Med Virol 13:85-97 (2003)) and increased avidity is accomplished by binding of multimeric HA spikes to multiple cell receptors. To determine whether the recombinant HA1 proteins contain functionally active forms they were evaluated in human RBC hemagglutination assay. As positive controls we used the H5N1 vaccine strain rgA/Vietnam/1203/2004 and the licensed H5N1 inactivated vaccine (FIG. 9C). Both HA1 (1-330) and the HA1 (1-320) proteins agglutinated RBC, with endpoints of 97 and 4 ng/ml, respectively. CD melt spectroscopy demonstrated that the HA1 (1-320) protein was some what more stable than the HA1 (1-330) (melting temperatures of 54.3° C. and 51.8° C., respectively). Therefore, the deletion of 10 amino acid sequence at the carboxy-terminus of HA1 had a stabilizing effect on the HA1 protein, and improved hemeagglutination (FIG. 9C). In contrast, all the N-terminal deletions (5-320, 9-330, 17-330, and 28-330, and 28-320) did not agglutinate RBC (FIG. 9C).

The hemagglutination mediated by HA1 (1-330) and HA1 (1-320) was specific since it was blocked in a concentration dependent manner by preincubation with the H5N1-neutralizing huMAb FLA5.10 (but not by irrelevant MAb 2D7; not shown) (FIG. 9D).

Recombinant Ha1 Globular Domains Contain Oligomers

The hemagglutination results suggested that the intact HA1 (1-330 and 1-320), but not the N-terminus-deleted HA1 proteins, contain higher order quartenary forms required for RBC lattice formation. To address this possibility, the HA1 derivatives were subjected to gel filtration (FIG. 10 and FIG. 13) It was found that HA1 (1-320) contained ˜80% high molecular weight (MW) oligomeric forms (FIG. 10A). In comparison, all the N-terminus deleted mutants appeared as monomers only (FIG. 10B-C, and FIG. 13). The H5N1 inactivated subunit vaccine (Sanofi Pasteur) contained only oligomers (FIG. 10E). Interestingly, HA1 (1-104) segment, devoid of the RBD, also formed oligomers (FIG. 10D). In addition to size chromatography, the monomeric and oligomeric peaks of HA1 (1-320) were isolated from the gel filtration and were analyzed by native SDS-PAGE (FIG. 10F) as well as reduced SDS-PAGE gel (FIG. 10G). H5N1 vaccine was included as a positive control. In the native gel, monomeric fraction of HA1 (1-320) ran at the expected MW (FIG. 10F lane 1), while the oligomeric fraction contained multiple high MW species, similar to the H5N1 inactivated vaccine (FIG. 10F lanes 2 and 3). In SDS-PAGE under reducing conditions, the bacterially expressed HA1 monomeric and oligomeric fractions all ran as monomers (FIG. 10G lanes 1-2). As expected, the vaccine H5N1 HA was dissociated into HA1 and HA2 (FIG. 10G lane 3). Sedimentation velocity data collected by analytical centrifugation suggested that the oligomeric fraction of the rHA1 (1-320) contained multiples of trimers with majority of oligomers consisting of 4-6 trimers (data not shown).

Oligomeric Forms of HA1 are Required for Receptor Binding and Hemagglutination

To further investigate which HA1 forms are required for receptor binding and RBC agglutination, we established a fetuin based Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) assay that mimics the simultaneous interactions between the virion HA spikes with sialic acid moieties (Takemoto et al., Virology 217:452-8 (1996)). All H5N1-HA1 mutants and truncated proteins were tested for binding to fetuin coated on biosensor chips. As shown in FIG. 12A, HA1 (1-320) showed higher binding to fetuin coated surface, than HA1 (1-330). The H5N1 vaccine bound fetuin at similar rate to HA1 (1-320), but dissociated slower (FIG. 12A). The levels of fetuin binding by HA1 (1-320) vs. HA1 (1-330) correlated well with the RBC agglutinations demonstrated in FIG. 9C (top 2 rows) and confirmed that the 10 aa C-terminus deletion stabilized the functional oligomeric HA1. No binding to asialo-fetuin was observed, confirming the binding specificity of these proteins to sialyated glycoproteins (FIG. 12B). To better understand the role of monomers and oligomers in receptor binding and hemagglutination, a preparative gel filtration column was used to isolate monomers and oligomers of HA1 (1-320). Only fractions containing oligomers, but not monomers, bound to fetuin in the SPR assay (FIG. 12C, curves), and agglutinated RBC (FIG. 12D), while both monomeric and oligomeric forms were properly folded as determined by binding to three conformation dependent H5N1 neutralizing human MAbs in SPR (data not shown). All the HA1 proteins with N-terminal deletions or mutations, consist only of monomers, and did not bind fetuin (FIG. 12A and FIG. 13). The N-terminal (1-104) formed oligomers (FIG. 10D), but did not bind fetuin and did not agglutinate RBC as it did not contain the receptor binding domain (FIG. 13).

N-Terminal Amino Acids Ile-Cys-Ile are Required for HA1 Oligomerization.

Alignment of the N-terminal amino acids of the HA protein from representative strains of 16 different influenza A hemagglutinin subtypes identified amino acids I₃C₄I₅G₆ (SEQ ID NO:46)as highly conserved. Since deletion of only four residues in the N-terminus of HA1 (HA 5-320) was sufficient to prevent RBC agglutination (FIG. 9), we constructed two mutants of HA1 (I₃C₄I₅>A₃A₄A₅) and (I₃C₄I₅>G₃A₄G₅). These mutations did not affect protein folding as determined by binding to huMAb FLA5.10. However, both mutated proteins contained only 20 monomers and did not agglutinate RBC (FIG. 13).

These data suggested that in the absence of HA2, the HA1 globular domain can use an oligomerization signal in the N-terminus that encompass the highly conserved amino acid residues at position 3-5 of influenza hemagglutinin.

Oligomers-Containing HA1 Proteins Elicit Broadly Cross-Neutralizing Antibodies in Rabbits

We next compared the immunogenicity of bacterially-expressed monomeric HA1 (28-320) with that of HA1 (1-320) protein (˜80% oligomers) in rabbits. Microneutralization assay was used to evaluate both homologous and heterologous neutralizing capacity of post-vaccination rabbit sera following 3-4 consecutive immunizations (100 μg protein per dose) (FIG. 14). After two immunizations, the monomeric HA1 (28-320) elicited modest neutralizing antibody titers (1:80) against homologous virus (A/Vietnam/1203/2004; clade 1), which increased 4 fold by the 4th immunization. Cross neutralization of A/Turkey/1/2005 (clade 2.2) and A/Anhui/1/2005 (clade 2.3.4), but not of AJIndonesia/5/2005 (clade 2.1) was also observed (FIG. 14A, top panel). In contrast, rabbits immunized with oligomeric HA1 (1-320), showed a faster kinetics of immune response and broader cross-clade neutralization. A titer of 1:160 against A/Vietnam/1203/2004 was measured after the second immunization, and increased dramatically to 1:5,120 after the third vaccination. Importantly, cross-clade neutralizing titers were also very robust against heterologous HP H5N1 AIV including A/Indonesia/5/2005 (clade 2.1), which is more difficult to cross neutralize (FIG. 14A, bottom panel).

In order to determine if vaccination with oligomeric HA1 elicit antibodies which are oligomer-specific, post vaccination sera from K1 rabbit (vaccinated with HA1 1-320) and K3 rabbit (vaccinated with HA1 28-320) were absorbed with the monomeric (28-320) or oligomeric (1-320) proteins followed by binding to SPR sensor chips coated with oligomeric fraction of HA1. (FIG. 11A), or monomeric fraction of HA1 (1-320) (FIG. 11B). Adsorption of either sera with the HA1 (1-320) removed SPR binding to the two proteins (FIG. 11). On the other hand, K₁ serum that was adsorbed with the monomeric fraction of HA1 (1-320), still bound at low level to the chip coated with the oligomeric HA1 (1-320) protein (FIG. 11A) but not to the chip coated with the monomeric protein (FIG. 11B). These findings suggested the presence of oligomeric-specific antibodies in the sera of K1 rabbit, which were not adsorbed by the monomeric HA1 (28-320) protein. The presence of trimer-specific anti-HA antibodies (seasonal), has been previously suggested (Copeland et al., J Cell Biol 103:1179-91 (1986)).

Oligomeric but not Monomeric Ha1 Immunogens Protect Ferrets from Homologous and Heterologous Challenge with HP H5N1 AIV

To further evaluate the ability to generate protective immunity with bacterially expressed HA1 proteins we used the ferret model, which is extremely susceptible to highly pathogenic H5N1 influenza infections. Since the pattern of influenza virus attachment to the lower respiratory tract resulting in influenza-associated pneumonia in ferrets resembles influenza infections in humans, this model has been widely used to evaluate influenza pathogenesis and vaccines (Maher, J. A., and J. DeStefano, Lab Anim (NY) 33:50-3 (2004); van Riel et al., Am J Pathol 171:1215-23 (2007)). Ferrets were vaccinated twice with either 3 μg or 15 μg of either oligomeric HA1 globular protein (HA 1-320) or the N-terminus deleted monomeric HA1 (HA 28-320), on days 0 and 21. The antigen doses were selected based on seasonal influenza vaccines, and the need for dose sparing. Fourteen days after the second immunization, unvaccinated and vaccinated animals were challenged intranasally with highly pathogenic H5N1 ANietnam/1203/2004 (clade 1, homologous to the vaccine stain) or with the H5N1 A/Whooperswan/Mongolia/244/2005 (clade 2.2) AIV at a pre-determined lethal dose (106 EID50). Animals were monitored for 10 days for lethality, weight loss and sickness scores.

The hemagglutinaton inhibition (HI) titers following two vaccinations with rHA1 (1-320) ranged between 1:40-1:640 (Average: 1:204) and between 1:10-1:320 (Average 1:141) for the 15 μg and 3 μg dose, respectively. The rHA1 (28-320) did not generate HI titers in any of the vaccinated animals. Following intranasal challenge with HP avian viruses A/Vietnam/1203/2004 and A/Whooperswan/244/2005, all unvaccinated ferrets developed severe symptoms, lost weight progressively, and died within 3-7 days following challenge (FIG. 15A-B, black open circles). The N-terminus-deleted HA1 (28-320) that contains only monomers did not protect animals from weight loss and lethality at the 3 μg dose (FIG. 15A-B), and only one animal survived homologous H5N1 A/Vietnam/1203/2004 challenge at the 15 μg vaccine dose (FIG. 15A-B). In contrast, ferrets vaccinated with HA1 (1-320) with either 3 μg or 15 μg dose, were fully protected from lethality (FIG. 15B). These animals showed only a minor transient weight loss on day 3 (≦10%) followed by a full recovery without any signs of symptoms by day 4 after homologous (A/Vietnam/1203/2004) virus challenge (FIG. 15A). Importantly, HA1 (1-320) immunization also protected ferrets against heterologous challenge with highly pathogenic clade 2.2 virus (H5N1 A/Whooperswan/244/2005), resulting in 80% survival rate and <10% weight loss in both the high and low dose vaccinated groups (FIG. 15C-D).

In addition to protection from mortality and morbidity, viral loads in the nasal washes of HA1 (1-320) vaccinated animals were reduced by 2-5 logs on days 3 and 5 post challenge compared with unvaccinated animals or with animals vaccinated with monomeric HA1 (FIG. 15E-H). Reduction in viral loads following heterologous challenge was more modest (1-2 logs). Such reduction in viral loads in the nasal cavities is predicted to also reduce virus transmission.

Together, our data demonstrated that bacterially expressed HA1 proteins that are properly folded and contain functional oligomers, can elicit protective immunity against highly pathogenic vaccine-matched as well as heterologous avian influenza viruses.

Discussion

Expression of recombinant HA proteins in bacteria could provide a rapid and economical approach for early response to impending influenza pandemic. Early studies demonstrated that protective influenza antigenic sites are conformation dependent and map primarily to HA1 globular domain. Therefore, producing HA1 proteins in properly folded state is imperative to eliciting protective antibody responses.

In the current study we have dissected the structure-function requirements of bacterially expressed HA1 proteins and evaluated their potential use as prophylactic vaccines against highly pathogenic H5N1 AIV. The main findings are: (a) a panel of HA1 proteins with N- and C-terminal deletions purified from E. coli under careful redox conditions were shown to be properly folded by binding to conformation-dependent huMAb; (b) HA1 with intact N-terminus contained oligomers in addition to monomers, while HA1 with N-terminal deletions contained only monomers; (c) fetuin receptor binding assay demonstrated that only HA1 proteins with intact N-termini, containing oligomers, bound receptors; (d) hemagglutination required oligomeric HA1; (e) site directed mutagenesis of Ile-Cys-Ile residues at positions 3-5 disrupted oligomer formation, fetuin binding and RBC agglutination with no effect on HA1 folding; (f) in rabbits, properly folded HA1 containing oligomers, generated more rapid potent neutralizing antibodies than monomeric HA1 and cross neutralized several H5N1 clades including A/Indoensia/5/2005; (g) vaccination of ferrets with HA1 (1-320) at either 3 or 15 μg protein per dose, protected animals from lethality and morbidity following challenge with homologous (A/Vietnam/1203/2004) or heterologous (A/Whooperswan/Mongolia/244/2005) HP AIV challenge. In contrast, monomeric HA1 (28-320) was not immunogenic in ferrets at the same doses, and did not protect animals from H5N1 challenge.

The structure of HA from highly pathogenic H5N1 A/Vietnam/1203/2004 resembles the 1918 and other human H1 HA (Stevens et al., J Mol Biol 355:1143-55 (2006); Xu et al., Science 328:357-60 (2010); Xu et al., R., J Virol 84:1715-21). Most of the inter subunit salt bridges and hydrophobic interactions are between the HA2 chains due to coiled-coil structure which forms the stem of the HA trimer (Boulay et al., J Cell Biol 106:629-39 (1988); Copeland et al., J Cell Biol 103:1179-91 (1986); Daniels et al., Cell 40:431-9 (1985); Doms et al., J Virol 57:603-13 (1986); Doms, R. W., and A. Helenius., J Virol 60:833-9 (1986)). These earlier HA-structural studies did not describe the oligomerization signal in the HA1 globular domain identified in the current study, suggesting that in the presence of HA2 the N-terminus β-sheet structure is engaged in HA1-HA2 bridge and not in HA1 oligomerization. This might explain why most recombinantly expressed HA ectodomain proteins exist as monomers, and require the addition of multimerization sequences like “foldon” at the C-terminus in order to produce stable oligomeric structures (Wei et al., J Virol 82:6200-8 (2008)). This was further confirmed in a recent study in our laboratory with bacterially expressed HA proteins from the novel H1N1 A/California/04/2009 comparing the composition and immunogenicity of globular HA1 (1-330) with that of the HA ectodomain (1-480). Both proteins were properly folded. However, only the HA1 globular head (1-330) formed oligomers and agglutinate human RBC, while the HA ectodomain (1-480) contained only monomers and did not agglutinate RBC (Khurana et al., PLoS One 5:e11548). It is likely that in native spikes the N-terminal β-sheets of the three HA1 globular domains are not in sufficient proximity to form oligomers, but in the absence of HA2 they are free and close enough to provide the needed oligomerization signal. This was confirmed by our finding that a N-terminal fragment HA1 (1-104) without the receptor binding domain appeared primarily as oligomers in gel filtration chromatography (FIG. 10D)

In mammalian and eukaryotic cells, post-translational glycosylation of HA was shown to play an important role in proper folding, trimer stabilization, and transport to the cell outer membrane (Ceriotti, A., and A. Colman, J Cell Biol 111:409-20 (1990); Copeland et al., J Cell Biol 103:1179-91 (1986); Roberts et al., J Virol 67:3048-60 (1993)). On the other hand, we have demonstrated in this and previous studies that bacterially expressed unglycosylated HA can be purified as properly folded proteins as determined by CD spectra analysis and binding to conformation-dependent neutralizing monoclonal antibodies (Khurana et al., Sci Transl Med 2:15ra5; Khurana et al., PLoS Med 6:e1000049 (2009)).

Importantly, our study demonstrated that in addition to proper folding, HA1 oligomers were required for high avidity receptor (fetuin) binding and for cross-linking of RBC resulting in hemagglutination. Other reports on the production of recombinant HA in mammalian cells, insect cells, or bacterial systems, did not provide information on the presence and function of oligomers vs. monomeric forms of HA (Lakey et al., J Infect Dis 174:838-41 (1996); Powers et al., J Infect Dis 175:342-51 (1997); Shen et al., J Med Virol 80:1972-83 (2008); Song et al., PLoS One 3:e2257 (2008); Treanor et al., Vaccine 19:1732-7 (2001); Wang et al., Vaccine 24:2176-85 (2006)).

Our data on the importance of high MW oligomers for optimal immunogenicity of influenza HA proteins is in agreement with a report on mammalian cell expressed HA ectodomain, which required the addition of multimerization “foldon” at the C-terminus in order to produce stable oligomeric structures (Wei et al., J Virol 82:6200-8 (2008)) and to elicit optimal neutralizing antibody titers. However, in the case of bacterially expressed HA1, no requirement for a foldon like sequence was found. Importantly, the traditional inactivated subunit vaccine generated from egg grown virus contains primarily oligomeric forms (FIG. 9). Therefore, our bacterially expressed and properly folded HA1 proteins with intact N-terminus behave similar to inactivated H5N1 subunit vaccines in terms of in vitro functions including receptor binding and RBC agglutination.

The ferret protection data with highly pathogenic avian H5N1 studies provide strong evidence that bacterially expressed HA1 proteins, which are properly folded and contain functional oligomers, are potent inducers of protective immunity against pathogenic influenza viruses. While all H5N1 viruses are between 95 to 98% identical regardless of Glade, there is poor cross-reactivity between antibodies elicited to clade 1 HP H5N1 viruses, such as A/Vietnam/04 and clade 2 H5N1 viruses that predominate the recently transmitted strains resulting in high human lethality. The cross protection against heterologous strains is of importance since it is not certain which of the avian H5N1 influenza strains will adapt to human to human transmission.

The combination of recombinant technology and improved purification approaches, combined with analytical assays to confirm proper folding and higher order quartenary structures will facilitate large scale production of HA in bacterial systems. Within two weeks of pandemic strain isolation high quantities of HA1 proteins can be produced (currently 40-50 mg/Liter in a batch culture; with 8-10 fold higher yields in small scale continuous fermentation culture). Thus far, we have generated bacterially expressed properly folded HA1 from two H5N1 strains (A/Vietnam/1203/2004; clade 1 & A/Indonesia/5/2005; Glade 2.1), novel H1N1 (A/California/04/2009), H3N2 (A/Wisconsin/15/2009 & A/Victoria/210/2009), and H7N7 (A/Netherlands/219/03), and all were shown to form functional oligomers (≧70%), with lot to lot consistency (FIG. 16).

Therefore, production of HA1 (1-320) proteins in bacterial systems is a viable and scalable approach for rapid vaccine production in response to emerging influenza strains with little or no pre-existing immunity (such as H5N1 influenza), especially for individuals with known egg allergies.

The examples and embodiments described herein are for illustrative purposes only and that various modifications or changes in light thereof will be suggested to persons skilled in the art and are to be included within the spirit and purview of this application and scope of the appended claims. All publications, patents, and patent applications cited herein are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety for all purposes.

Informal Sequence Listing

SEQ ID NO: 1 A/California/04/2009(H1N1) HA1-480 DTLCIGYHANNSTDTVDTVLEKNVTVTHSVNLLEDKHNGKLCKLRGVAPLHLGKCNIAGW ILGNPECESLSTASSWSYIVETPSSDNGTCYPGDFIDYEELREQLSSVSSFERFEIFPKT SSWPNHDSNKGVTAACPHAGAKSFYKNLIWLVKKGNSYPKLSKSYINDKGKEVLVLWGIH HPSTSADQQSLYQNADTYVFVGSSRYSKKFKPEIAIRPKVRDQEGRMNYYWTLVEPGDKI TFEATGNLVVPRYAFAMERNAGSGIIISDTPVHDCNTTCQTPKGAINTSLPFQNIHPITI GKCPKYVKSTKLRLATGLRNIPSIQSRGLFGAIAGFIEGGWTGMVDGWYGYHHQNEQGSG YAADLKSTQNAIDEITNKVNSVIEKMNTQFTAVGKEFNHLEKRIENLNKKVDDGFLDIWT YNAELLVLLENERTLDYHDSNVKNLYEKVRSQLKNNAKEIGNGCFEFYHKCDNTCMESVK SEQ ID NO: 2 A/Vietnam/1203/2004(H5N1) HA1-320 DQICIGYHANNSTEQVDTIMEKNVTVTHAQDILEKKHNGKLCDLDGVKPLILRDCSV AGWLLGNPMCDEFINVPEWSYIVEKANPVNDLCYPGDFNDYEELKHLLSRINHFEKI QIIPKSSWSSHEASLGVSSACPYQGKSSFFRNVVWLIKKNSTYPTIKRSYNNTNQEDL LVLWGIHHPNDAAEQTKLYQNPTTYISVGTSTLNQRLVPRIATRSKVNGQSGRMEFF WTILKPNDAINFESNGNFIAPEYAYKIVKKGDSTIMKSELEYGNCNTKCQTPMGAINS SMPFHNIHPLTIGECPKYVKSNRLVLATGLRNS SEQ ID NO: 3 A/California/04/2009(H1N1) HA1-330 DTLCIGYHANNSTDTVDTVLEKNVTVTHSVNLLEDKHNGKLCKLRGVAPLHLGKCN IAGWILGNPECESLSTASSWSYIVETPSSDNGTCYPGDFIDYEELREQLSSVSSFERFEI FPKTSSWPNHDSNKGVTAACPHAGAKSFYKNLIWLVKKGNSYPKLSKSYINDKGKE VLVLWGIHHPSTSADQQSLYQNADTYVFVGSSRYSKKFKPEIAIRPKVRDQEGRMNY YWTLVEPGDKITFEATGNLVVPRYAFAMERNAGSGIIISDTPVHDCNTTCQTPKGAIN TSLPFQNIHPITIGKCPKYVKSTKLRLATGLRNIPSIQSR SEQ ID NO: 4 A/Indonesia/5/2005(H5N1) HA1-320 DQICIGYHANNSTEQVDTIMEKNVTVTHAQDILEKTHNGKLCDLDGVKPLILRDCSV AGWLLGNPMCDEFINVPEWSYIVEKANPTNDLCYPGSFNDYEELKHLLSRTNHFEKI QIIPKSSWSDHEASSGVSSACPYLGSPSFFRNVVWLIKKNSTYPTIKKSYNNTNQEDLL VLWGIHHPNDAAEQTRLYQNPTTYISIGTSTLNQRLVPKIATRSKVNGQSGRMEFFW TILKPNDAINFESNGNFIAPEYAYKIVKKGDSAIMKSELEYGNCNTKCQTPMGAINSS MPFHNIHPLTIGECPKYVKSNRLVLATGLRNS SEQ ID NO: 5 A/Victoria/210/2009(H3N2) HA1-330 SWNDNSTATLCLGHHAVPNGTIVKTITNDQIEVTNATELVQNSSTGEICDSPHQILDG KNCTLIDALLGDPQCDGFQNKKWDLFVERSKAYSNCYPYDVPDYASLRSLVASSGT LEFNNESFNWTGVTQNGTSSACIRRSKNSFFSRLNWLTHLNFKYPALNVTMPNNEQF DKLYIWGVHHPVTDKDQIFLYAQASGRITVSTKRSQQTVIPNIGSRPRVRNIPTRISIY WTIVKPGDILLINSTGNLIAPRGYFKMQSGKSSMRSDAPIGKCNSECITPNGSIPNDKP FQNVNRITYGACPRYVKQNTLKLATGMRNVPEKQTR SEQ ID NO: 6 A/Wisconsin/15/2009(H3N2) HA1-330 SWNDNSTATLCLGHHAVPNGTIVKTITNDQIEVTNATELVQSSSTGEICDSPHQILDG KNCTLIDALLGDPQCDDFQNKKWDLFVERSKAYSNCYPYDVPDYASLRSLVASSGT LEFNNESFNWTGVTQNGTSSACIRRSKNSFFSRLNWLTHLNFKYPALNVTMPNNEQF DKLYIWGVHHPGTDKDQIFPYAQASGRITVSTKRSQQTAIPNIGSRPRVRNIPSRISIY WTIVKPGDILLINSTGNLIAPRGYFKIRSGKSSIMRSDAPIGKCNSECITPNGSIPNDKPF QNVNRITYGACPRYVKQNTLKLATGMRNVPEKQTR SEQ ID NO: 7 A/Netherlands/219/03(H7N7) HA1-320 DKICLGHHAVSNGTKVNTLTERGVEVVNATETVERTNVPRICSKGKRTVDLGQCGL LGTITGPPQCDQFLEFSADLIIERREGSDVCYPGKFVNEEALRQILRESGGIDKETMGF TYSGIRTNGTTSACRRSGSSFYAEMKWLLSNTDNAAFPQMTKSYKNTRKDPALIIWG IHHSGSTTEQTKLYGSGNKLITVGSSNYQQSFVPSPGARPQVNGQSGRIDFHWLILNP NDTVTFSFNGAFIAPDRASFLRGKSMGIQSEVQVDANCEGDCYHSGGTIISNLPFQNI NSRAVGKCPRYVKQESLLLATGMKNV 

What is claimed is:
 1. A composition comprising oligomers of unglycosylated polypeptides, the polypeptides comprising: a. at least a portion of an influenza Hemagglutinin-1 (HA-1) domain; and b. lacking: an Hemagglutinin-2 (HA-2) domain; or both an Hemagglutinin-2 (HA-2) domain and an Hemagglutinin transmembrane domain; wherein administration of the composition to an animal generates neutralizing antibodies against an influenza virus.
 2. A physiological vaccine composition comprising, the composition of claim 1; and a physiological excipient.
 3. The composition of claim 2, further comprising an adjuvant.
 4. A method of inducing an immune response against an influenza Hemagglutinin in an animal, the method comprising, administering an amount of the composition of claim 2 to the animal sufficient to induce said immune response.
 5. The composition of claim 1, wherein said portion comprises an influenza amino acid sequence comprising the amino acids isoleucine (I) or leucine (L) at the amino acid corresponding to position 3, the amino acid cysteine (C) at the amino acid corresponding to position 4, the amino acids I, L, or valine (V) at the amino acid corresponding to position 5, and the amino acid glycine (G) at the amino acid corresponding to position 6 of SEQ ID NO:2.
 6. The composition of claim 5, wherein the polypeptide comprises a sequence of SEQ ID NO:1, 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7 or a sequence that corresponds to positions 1-259 of SEQ ID NO:2.
 7. The composition of claim 5, wherein the polypeptide binds to conformation sensitive influenza neutralizing antibodies.
 8. The composition of claim 5, wherein the amino acid sequence is at least 80% identical to positions 1-259 of SEQ ID NOS:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or
 7. 9. The composition of claim 8, wherein the portion comprises positions 1-259 of SEQ ID NOS:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or
 7. 10. The composition of claim 5, wherein the portion consists of an influenza amino acid sequence at least 80% identical to an amino acid sequence corresponding to positions 1-259 of SEQ ID NOS:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or
 7. 11. The composition of claim 5, wherein the portion comprises an influenza amino acid sequence corresponding to positions 1-320 of SEQ ID NOS:1, 2, 3,4 ,5, 6 or
 7. 12. The composition of claim 11, wherein the amino acid sequence comprises a sequence of SEQ ID NO:1, 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7 or a sequence that corresponds to positions 1-320 of SEQ ID NO:2.
 13. The composition of claim 11, wherein the amino acid sequence is at least 80% identical to positions 1-320 of SEQ ID NOS:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or
 7. 14. The composition of claim 11, wherein the portion comprises positions 1-320 of SEQ ID NOS:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or
 7. 15. The composition of claim 11, wherein the portion consists of an amino acid sequence at least 80% identical to positions 1-320 of SEQ ID NOS:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or
 7. 16. The composition of claim 11, wherein the portion consists of an influenza amino acid sequence at least 80% identical to an amino acid sequence corresponding to positions 1-320 of SEQ ID NOS:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or
 7. 17. The composition of claim 5, wherein the portion comprises an influenza amino acid sequence corresponding to positions 1-330 of SEQ ID NO:1.
 18. The composition of claim 1, wherein said portion comprises amino acids corresponding to positions 2 to 7 of SEQ ID NO:2 substituted into the corresponding positions of a heterologous HA1 polypeptide selected from: (a) SEQ ID NO:1, 3, 5, 6, or 7, or (b) a sequence that corresponds to positions 1 to 320 of SEQ ID NO:2. 